International Adult Learners Week
in Europe

Network of Learning festivals

Ioana Jalba: Participant at the International Adult Learners Forum in October 2004 and in the International Adult Learners' Study Tour in May 2005

My strong passion for art and especially for fashion design and my determination to follow this path, no matter the difficulties, are two of the first things I could say about myself. When I look back at all that I have studied I realize that my intricate path to fashion is finally making sense.

I’m a 22 year-old student in the final year at the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest where I’m studying Business Administration in French. Last year thanks to an equivalence system and some extra courses I attended, I graduated from the Orleans Economic Faculty in France. Alongside that I’m teaching private classes of maths, English and French to people having difficulties with such subjects. So where does fashion come into this?

When I look back at all I have learned up to now I realize that even though I had to cope with my parents’ idea of studying economics and not fashion, I never gave up. This is why I followed a halfyear course of tailoring paid for with my own money, and even got a job as a fashion designer thanks to the diploma I received at the end of the course. I also took part in different fashion exhibitions and participated in a European project on fashion where I had the pleasure of seeing stylists and art teachers from different countries admiring my work. All this made me realize that I was growing and my work along side with me, and that even if it was not my main activity at the moment, I didn’t have to give up.

An interesting and crucial situation for me was my participation at a fashion contest held by a famous Romanian fashion designer where I didn’t win an award. That affected me a lot in the short term. So much that I doubted my art skills and was on my way to give up my dream. But as some say what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. I think that once I went over it, I did understand that instead of giving up I should try to grow professionally, to learn more and do better. It was after that I started the tailoring course. Even now I continue to learn all by myself to do embroidery and to improve the things I already know.

How do I see my future? First of all I will continue with a Masters in Marketing in an effort to bring together my economic side with my creative one. I’m also hoping that in order to continue my fashion studies I will obtain a scholarship at a well-known fashion school from abroad in a few years’ time. I’m hoping that doing both economics and fashion will help me open my own fashion business someday soon.

It is difficult to say with hindsight I would do something differently. I’m saying that, as I strongly believe that everything that one does or learns can find a helpful application at a certain point in one’s life. Moreover, I’m thinking that the path I have chosen has brought me plenty of experiences that influenced my life and decisions in a positive way. I don’t know whether my life would have been better had I chosen fashion studies from the very beginning but I do M know that having a diploma in economics, being creative, learning tailoring and speaking two foreign languages fluently will always help me to have more opportunities when finding a job.

If I was to propose a suggestion in order to improve adult education it would be to have national campaigns in order to make the idea of lifelong learning more attractive. I’m saying that as I realize that usually people do learn all their lives but when it comes to the concept of life long learning they step back (I´ve noticed that especially with younger generations, like mine, where a lot of people are happy to know that school is finally over). I think that for this kind of people the concept is not clear enough and definitely not too attractive. So it would be interesting to promote this concept in a more pleasant way so that the young adults will react in a positive way. After all, if they grow up in this spirit they will certainly be very good promoters to their own children.

Sanda Lazur, economist, teacher of ikebana

I could say that being born and having lived justacross from Herastrau Park was a privilege that brought a lot of joy into my heart, and had facilitated the discovery of an art called IKEBANA.

My childhood was dominated by the nature, the space and the pure air from this park. I remember coming back home and starting to arrange flowers in vases and adding branches - things that I hadn’t seen elsewhere but I was feeling.

When I started to study Ikebana I already had a profession. I had finished at economic high-school and graduated from the Academy of Economic Studies. I was, in other words, an economist. I was working with numbers and I have to admit that I didn’t have much satisfaction in the field. When I found out about the Ikebana course I knew that by joining it I would learn to bring nature’s magic into my house and into my life. The main reason I continue to attend the classes year after year was the Japanese teacher. She taught us the spirit of ikebana. Many times we look at things, but we see little. We have stereotyped ideas and we move in patterns already created. If we change the viewing angle our mind starts to discover new characters in the same materials and we become surprised by new and fresh ideas. In other words we have to really depict things by using our own eyes.

Now after 20 years of learning ikebana, I have become a teacher of ikebana. I’ve never received an award and I’ve never been to Japan. I have always been a self-teacher, but I learned during my life that there are a lot of ways which one can travel (reading, watching a movie) and that you don’t have to wait for any award in order to continue doing something. Now after a certain age I have the attitude that you can survive this world only by learning or trying to discover something new.