‘Sowing the Learning Seeds’ (SLS) Project 2010–2012
The project is financed via the EU Lifelong Learning programme,
sub-programme: Grundtvig; Action: Grundtvig Learning Partnerships 2010.


 
Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere. (Chinese Proverb)
  Hungary
Learners' testimonies:
Miklós Húszar (Slovenian meeting)

The Hungarian contingent at the meeting in Slovenia was composed of three participants from Budapest, along with Józef Kerestesi (professional leader) and Miklós Húszar (student) from the Zoltán Magyary Folk High School Society in Tata. Participants arrived from the Netherlands, France, Ireland, Estonia and Turkey and the working language was English. The Accommodation was in Prebold, about 60 km up the motorway from Ljubljana, and the events were held in Prebold and nearby Zalec.
 
The organizers held an hour long press conference on the morning of May 12 and after this at 11 am we went by bus, with the other international participants, to Zalec where the Slovenian association was holding its Adult Learners' Week celebrations. A brass band played in the square in front of the culture house, welcoming the participants and creating a sense of extraordinary intimacy in the celebration. Politicians and adult learning professionals made a variety of speeches in Slovenian, each of which were about 20 minutes long and which were greeted by enthusiastic applause from the approximately 300 strong audience. This was followed by a performance from a band and a singer on the stage and then the voluntary social workers received their awards.
 
In the afternoon the foreign delegates were taken to the city library, where first we listened to a local folk artist, who played a few numbers, including some well known songs, on a variety of different sized hand bells. After this we saw the work of a local photographer, who was exhibiting large prints of his work, then we visited the city museum, where we also had lunch.
 
On the morning of 13 May the partners  both Slovenian and international  made their professional presentations. These focused on the importance of successful relationships with the media and some ideas about how to involve the media in applications. In the afternoon the delegation split into four groups, each with a different topic. The aim of this workshop was to discuss and reflect on the proposals made during the plenary.
 
The accommodation and food were perfect and our Slovenian hosts looked after all of the details and helped us when needed. From my perspective, it was very important that lifelong learning was recognized as being crucially important in shaping peoples' consciousness and social development, and that the people who volunteer in this field get all the recognition they deserve. I was very pleased to have been able to represent the Hungarian delegation. It was an extraordinary experience for me, with my poor English, to speak to one of the Slovenian organizers, two Dutch, and one Estonian partner, and indeed to have a good conversation. In a park in Prebold I also spoke to an elderly German couple about their life.
 
I think that in the future Slovenia may come to be known as the little Switzerland of the Balkans; a friendly little country with a little bit of coastline.
 
Miklós Húszar, a learner at the Zoltán Magyary Folk High School Society in Tata, Hungary



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© 2010-2012 by Slovenian Institute for Adult Education (SIAE)