R. I. President D. K. Lee's Address at Charter Night

After greeting guests at the August 22nd charter night for the new Rotary Club of Chicagoland Korean - Northbrook in both English and Korean, Rotary International President Dong Kurn Lee made the following remarks:

I am very grateful to all of you for having made this evening, and this club, possible. And I am grateful for the invitation to speak to you tonight.

One thing that I found out very quickly when I was first nominated to the presidency of Rotary International was that my new job description included a very great deal of public speaking—and almost none of it was going to be in Korean.

You do not need to be Korean to understand that the idea of speaking publicly, in English, made me very nervous indeed. I had not studied English for many, many years. And when I was in high school, I certainly never imagined that I would ever have a job that would require me to speak English in front of hundreds and sometimes thousands of people at a time. If I had known this then, perhaps I would have taken better notes and spent a bit more time on my homework.

But within a few weeks of my nomination, I realized two things, and soon became less nervous. I realized that I would be practicing my English constantly, and that with some hard work on my part, I would soon improve. And perhaps more important, I realized that I would be speaking in front of some of the friendliest audiences one could hope for.

I now know that it does not matter very much if I do not pronounce every English word correctly. I know that no one in the audience cares about my accent, and that they will forgive my mistakes. Because what matters in Rotary is not what language we speak, or where we come from, or how much English we remember from high school. What matters in Rotary is fellowship, and friendship, and building bridges of goodwill. What matters is that we put Service Above Self, and that we work together to Make Dreams Real.

I am humbled and honored to be the first Korean president of Rotary International. And I feel a responsibility on behalf of Korea to give back to Rotary as Rotary has given to my country.

So many of Rotary’s values resonate with me and with all Koreans: the emphasis on hard work, on education, on honesty, on business practices based on trust.

We in Korea value /chim shin uro/, or “pure heart.” A person with a pure heart is someone who has personal integrity—a person who treats others with honor and respect; someone who can be counted on to always do what is right. “Pure heart” is a highly valued trait in Korean business, and it is important to Rotary. In Rotary, our integrity is what makes us successful in business, in service, and in our lives. “Pure heart” is what we in Rotary call Service Above Self.

Koreans also talk about work as /chip an/. /Chip an/ means “inside the house.” It is a way to talk about how important our work is to us—that our companies and businesses are like our family. Our businesses and the people in them should be treated with respect, honor, and dignity—because Koreans believe that good personal relationships are the basis for business. In Rotary, we also believe that a relationship with people in our professions is important. We should treat our customers, our employers, our employees, and our colleagues like our family.

True Rotary service gives us /chim shin uro/, and our profit is personal honesty, integrity in business, and honor. This is the reality behind Service Above Self. This is the reality of Rotary—the reality that inspires us, and challenges us, every day.

I am honored to be here at the chartering of this new club, and look forward to building /chim shin uro/ with you.