Learning is an extremely complex multidimensional process that happens differently to everyone. We are dealing with an extremely complex system of interactions between and within the individuals, and between the individuals and their environment, and a host of subjective parameters, such as perceptions, emotions, attitudes and values. Learning, aside from being a cognitive process, is also an emotional and social process. This paper aims to contribute to a more advanced understanding of human learning processes using a phenomenological ecological approach to learning (van Lier, 2004, 2010; Kramsch, 2009). Analysing data from two new studies (a study of multilingual people’s experiences of their (language) learning processes and a study of people’s experiences of working place as learning space), the paper presents and analyses human experiences in relation to learning in different contexts, at different moments in time and in different ways, based on different experiences, driven by different goals and achieving different results with different feelings. The learners themselves are changed as a result of their active engagement with learning. The paper deals with such questions as: What do people have to say about their lifelong learning experiences as part of their personal and social life? How do psychological (cognitive and emotional) and social factors influence the processes of learning in different spaces by different individuals? How can this knowledge contribute to the concept of transformative learning spaces? The study is based on 15 learner’s stories constructed by using a special developed methodology inspired by Claire Kramsch work on “The Multilingual Subject” (2009) and Phil Bensons and Davis Nunans “Learners´ stories. Difference and Diversity in Language Learning” (2004) and analysed as lived experience using hermeneutic phenomenological approach (van Manen, 1997). The use of a phenomenological ecological approach to work with research data allows to present unique learning experiences of different people that challenge the traditional understanding of learning. These learning stories have huge potential to provide data for working with the new perspectives on learning (Brooks etc., 2012).

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