10th Annual Lifelong Learning Festival

This past week saw Icheon host the 10^th Annual Lifelong Learning Festival. It is not a local even, but a National festival, and it was bigger than anything I have ever seen at Seolbong Park. There were huge tents as well as many smaller tents, with exhibitors filling almost every spot, from all over the country. There were two stages with one busy almost every time I went past the park.

Everyone knows that Koreans see studying and grades as a very serious subject. Despite this Koreans don’t see “learning” in the same way I was taught to think of it. Learning does not stop when you leave school or university. You don’t have to go take an official course of something official like a language, or a computer program that you will need for a possible new job. It is a much wider concept.

Learning includes anything you can learn to do. Anything you don’t know how to do yet. Learning how to make paper dolls is learning. So is photography for fun, or a martial art you know nothing about. Anything that take a bit of effort to implant in to your mind is considered learning, no matter how menial it might seem. And don’t forget to bring the children along.

At the festival there wasn’t really all that much that was obvious to a non-Korean speaker. Most of the booths were representing the Lifelong Learning Centers from various cities in Korea, and you had to read their material or speak to them to find out what they were all about. I suspect it will be pretty much the same thing in each city. Why exactly I, as a visitor, would like to know what the learning Center in Busan, a city 5 hours away from me, offers no one no one would know.

At a few booths there were things that caught my eye. One booth had a setup for what looked like stop-motion photography. Another booth had a big setup and was teaching children funs sciency stuff and yet another had examples of that plastic food you see in restaurants. I am sure that most booths were offering interesting things, but the presentation in general was not exactly changing the world.

All in all I was really impressed that something like this even existed and having a look at this idea of Lifelong Learning might be something that more people and countries should consider.