Khondamir Karshiboev

Siz sher yozaszmi

In this fast-paced world, we rarely pause to reflect on what is happening in our lives and connect the dots. I just want to share some of the musings I recently had. Looking backward one of the best decisions I made was to learn English. Because learning English not only opened doors academically and career-wise, it also meant that the world of information was at my fingertips.

This is largely due to the presence of one person in my life: Asrorbek Toshev, my English teacher. I was lucky enough to meet him in 2014 because he didn't teach me just English but also what to think, more importantly, how to think.

In our lessons (as a pre-intermediate level student), we were watching the lectures of Michael Sandel and discussing if it was right to save more people's lives by sacrificing another life. Or, we were watching a funny-clip of a guy who shot to stardom overnight because of a funny interview he gave. I was not missing out on anything that was happening in the world because every lesson Asror aka used to ask what was happening in the world. Everyone in our group was well-informed about the current affairs of the time. These lessons motivated us to learn English not just to pass IELTS, but to be able to communicate with the rest of the world and consume more knowledge.

Fast-forward to now, that student-teacher relationship turned into a brotherhood. He treats his students as friends because he knows he can shape their lives in one way or another.

The reason I am sharing something as personal as this here on the channel is not only to encourage you guys to learn English not just to pass some exam or find your way into an MBA program, but to tell you that you need to truly enjoy the process like I did and am doing. Asror aka, one of the best teachers in Uzbekistan, taught us language learning should be the journey, not the destination. This is also my tribute to Asrorbek Toshev, who has had a really positive impact on my life.