Rakan Alelyani - Certificate in English as a Foreign Language

“I am 16 years old and I want to be a heart surgeon then a professor. I can’t start training for that until I’m 22 so until then I want to learn as much as I can to get a head start. The first step is to learn English and I’m doing that at NorthTec.”

Rakan is from Saudi Arabia. “You need English to do anything in the world. I chose New Zealand because there are very few Saudi Arabians here so we have to speak English and mix with kiwi culture.”

Rakan knew about NorthTec because friends of his came here four or five years ago. “Because of that link, my younger brother and I came to Whangarei Boys High School for three months last year. Our father came here for three days to settle us in so we could start learning English. We are both at a home-stay now while I study at NorthTec.”

“The tutors are great here getting us ready to pass the ILES exam and helping with info about Auckland. The challenge for me is to keep up with classes during Ramadan when we can’t eat until after dark.”

“I will return to school in Saudi Arabia after the course, practise English, and in the next holidays study in a country where I can get credits for Saudi.”