|
|
RI President’s Message in April 2013
|
| |
|
|
DEAR FELLOW ROTARIANS,
Rotary is an international organization, and when I travel for Rotary, I usually speak in English. But it has been a long time since my last English exam, and when I am working in Evanston, I always have a Japanese interpreter. It is impor- tant to understand every word of the meetings, and it is important as well that the staff understand what I am saying.
It was a new experience for me to speak Japanese to a group, and then hear my words spoken in English. Even now, I find it interesting. I hear new ways of expressing myself in English, and I also have a small glimpse of what it must be like not to speak Japanese.
|
|
But perhaps the most interesting moment came early on in my year as president-elect, when I was in a meeting with Rotary staff members. To be sure that we could communicate well, I had with me a Japanese interpreter. I spoke in Japanese, and she interpreted what I said into English. We had a pleasant and productive meeting.
After it was over, one member of the staff came up to me and asked, “There is one word I heard you use many times in Japanese. I would like to know what it means. What is the word ichiban?” I told her that ichiban in Japanese does not convey any philosophy or complicated thought. It simply means to be the best.
But it made me think. Of all the words I had used in Japanese, of all the words she had heard over and over, this was the word she had heard the most. I did not realize I had used it so often. But for me, that one word, ichiban, is essential to how I feel about my job as a Rotarian, and as president of RI.
For me, Rotary service means being ichiban. It means doing your best, and being the best you can be. It means working as hard as you can – not for yourself, but for others. It means achieving as much as you can, to make other people’s lives better.
In the dictionary, ichiban means “best.” But in Rotary, “best” means something different. It means bringing Service Above Self into all of your thinking. It means looking at your own eff ort, not in terms of what it costs you, but in terms of what it can give. In this way, we are inspired to do so much more. It is our job to see to it that our Rotary service is ichiban – so that we do the most we can to build Peace Through Service.
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
| |
Sakuji Tanaka
|
|
|
President, Rotary International
|
|
|
|
|
