Remarks from audience for Jin’s speech

Anyone who has had the pleasure and privilege of being around Jin is impressed by her warmth, strength, graciousness, determination and ability to inspire others through her example of leadership. Whether it is graduating from Harvard, becoming a U.S. major, raising a daughter who’s a Presidential scholar or moving audiences to action — she is that rare individual who makes everyone around her want to be a better person.
— Sam Horn, 16-time Emcee of the world-renowned Maui Writers Conference and author of POP! and Tongue Fu!

I was so moved by not only your story but what you sang at the end of your “sharing” as well. Even though I do not understand your native language, I could feel what you were singing very deeply… I could “see” the “energy” of your soul!

Charlotte Johnson, MA

I was so moved and encouraged by Jin’s speech; I went to a college in town that afternoon and registered for the evening classes. I also want to make something out of my life!!

An enlisted soldier of the U.S. Army,

Fort Bliss Texas

You inspired me to rise out of my current situation and to raise my daughter to become somebody, no matter what!

A teen single mom on welfare,

Cambridge College, MA

We believe that Oprah should invite you on her show. We will write to her every day until we see you on the show! Of course we will be in the audience to cheer you.

Students on welfare program,

Cambridge College, MA

I was going to commit suicide because of the miserable and unbearable life of the basic training in the Korean Army. But your speech at our post that afternoon saved me and made me realize the reasons to live. As you said, we have only one life to live. I also want to test and find out what my limits are!!

A soldier trainee in Korean Army

I have never heard more moving and inspiring speech in my whole life. In fact, this was the first time I ever gave a standing ovation!!

A woman in mid-fifties, Samsung Life Insurance, Korea

Your speech simply is so powerful. In fact I am using your story and philosophy when I train my people. Especially, your strategy of making three lists to accomplish every objective is so brilliant.

Executive VP, SK Telecom, Korea

Throughout your speech, I had goose bumps running over my body. I also was in tears at the realization that I can still dream even at my late fifties. You indeed inspired me to go for more of the life can offer.

President of Pharmaceutical Company

This is 10th time I listened to your speech and still made me cried. In fact, you inspire and motivate me and teach me something new every time.

President (man at mid-sixty,)

Korean Human Development Institute

My name is Young Moon Crouch. Yes !!! I am Korean-American. I am 28 years old, and I came to US when I was 25. I am a pianist. I work for 25th ID band. How do I know you? Because your mom is my spiritual hero!! She is the reason why I joined the U.S. Army. I read all of her books, and I even copied a DVD that your mom’s speech in Seoul. Every time when I have hard time, I watch it!!! And I saw you guys on TV as well.
Your mom changed my life and gave me so much hope!!!!! 🙂

Young Moon SPC CROUCH from 25th ID BAND, Schofield Barracks

—————————————————————————————

For Booking Inquiries For Jin Robertson – Motivational Speaker and Author or Further Information:
Please Contact: fallskyblue@gmail.com

Jin’s Interview at the NSA Convention

My Letter to Oprah

Jin Kyu (Suh) Robertson

Major (retired), U.S. Army; Ph.D., Harvard University

jkrobert@hanmail.net

12 August 2008

Oprah Winfrey Show

Harpo Studios

1058 W. Washington St.

Chicago, IL 60607

Dear Ms. Oprah Winfrey:

I would like to be a guest on your show because I have an unusual story which can inspire/motivate the people in the world: beginning as a virtual slave in a wig factory in Seoul, Korea, I completed a doctorate in the history of international relations at Harvard University.

I am a fifty-nine year old woman who retired from the U.S. Army at the rank of major in 1996, after having served for twenty years. I joined the U.S. Army as a private first class to stop being a battered wife and was a twenty-eight year old mother of an eight months old daughter.

My life in America began in 1971 when I immigrated alone as a housemaid, having found a job from a newspaper advertisement of a referral agency. I was twenty two years old, spoke very little English, had no relatives or friends in America, and had only $100 to my name with much debt to pay back. But my life in Korea was worse. I was born into a poor Korean family and worked as a waitress, housemaid, and clerk in addition to a factory girl.

During my early teen years, I had to help mother with endless house chores. She had a small tavern to attend to and had no time for anything else. I also had to look after my baby brother who seemed younger than his age: he was retarded. His condition caused my mother to turn to drink, and that added more nightmares to my childhood. Reflecting anger for her sad fate of being a woman, mother used to yell at me, “Girls are useless! You are useless!” Over mother’s heartbreaking wails, I heard the louder voice of my silent anger: “Why? Was it my fault to be born a girl?”

Then there were winters: the cold, cold days of my childhood. While washing a mountain of dirty clothes in freezing water at a small stream nearby, soon my wet hands became numb as icicles were forming on my feet. As I pounded the cloth on a rock with a wooden stick, my trembling voice echoed a scream through my shaking body: “Why me? Why do I have to live like this?”

One cold winter night, I was standing outside of mother’s tavern while carrying my baby brother on my back trying to put him to sleep. The snow had stopped after painting the whole world white. Following my white breath, I found the sky with a pale blue moon and twinkling stars. Between the hissings of the wind, I could hear the soft breathing of my brother peacefully sleeping with his small head comfortably resting on my shoulder. My bare cheeks felt cold but the close warmth from my baby brother’s tiny body on my back felt very nice. As if dreaming, I stared into mother’s tavern. Behind the steam-fogged glass door, I saw mother arguing with town drunkards and father busily trying to separate them. My frozen nose tingled. At that moment, along with the drunkards, father came out to go to work at the railroad station for the night shift. With a broad smile, he lightly patted my head before he got on his old bicycle. Suddenly I felt a big lump blocking my voice. I stood there silently watching his skinny small back disappearing into the dark alley as his rusty bike slid dangerously over the slippery snow. Then, suddenly, he disappeared into the dark alley as if he had been sucked into the mysterious world, leaving only a thin trace of white smoke behind. As warm tears were rolling down my cold cheeks, I felt my sobbing voice swirling in my heart: “It is not your fault that you were born into a poor lowly family. One day father, I will achieve my goal and will take care of you. I will show the world that what you are born into does not decide how you must live!”

Four decades later, two major Korean TV stations made documentaries about my life, and my autobiography was published in Korea and Japan where I began giving motivational speeches in both languages. The story of my odyssey could inspire people around the world to follow their dreams, whatever hardships they have endured as it has already inspired millions in Korea, where I am a well known speaker and bestselling author.

Most of all, I am a lucky mother. I am truly proud of my daughter, Jasmin S. Cho, who in spite of having been raised by a single mother as an army brat, graduated from Harvard College in the year 2000. After having been a top cadet of her ROTC Class throughout her college years, she is now a Captain and a Company Commander of an Air Defense Artillery (Patriot Missile) Battery in the U.S. Army. Although she studied at public schools most of her childhood, when she graduated from a high school (public), she received an award from President Clinton as one of 141 Presidential Scholars, selected out of 2.5 million American high school graduates in 1995. She is also fluent in English, Korean, and Japanese.

My story of the American Dream has made quite an impact on the lives of many Koreans and Japanese thus far. I hope to partake in your endeavor, helping not only Americans but also the people of the world in bettering their lives, by appearing as a guest on your show.

Sincerely Yours,

Jin K. Robertson

[VOA] Korean Immigrant’s Story: From Housemaid to Harvard

Korean Immigrant’s Story: From Housemaid to Harvard
By Mike O’Sullivan Voice of America, Los Angeles 12 February 2009

Jin Kyu at 22

Jin Kyu Robertson has come a long way since she immigrated to the United States as a housemaid when she was 22. Since then, she rose to the rank of major in the U.S. Army and completed a doctorate at Harvard University.

Jin Robertson says she had inauspicious beginnings, but her story shows the power of perseverance. She was the child of tavern owner, and neither of her parents ever attended school. By the time Jin was in sixth grade, she excelled at her studies, and her parents agreed to let her complete middle and high school.

There was no money for college, so she worked in a factory, as a waitress and housemaid. One day, she saw a newspaper ad for a housemaid in America. She applied for the job, over her family’s objections.

“I was 22 years old, and I didn’t speak much English at all,” she said. “And I had only $100 to my name, so that was my beginning, and a one-way ticket. So it was quite a challenge, I suppose.”

The job she came for had been filled by the time she reached New York, but she would find work as waitress, then as a hostess in a Jewish restaurant in New York’s financial district.

“So what I did was, I practiced the words, like ‘good morning,’ ‘good afternoon,’ ‘this way please,’ and ‘enjoy your meal,’ and those were all the words you needed,” she said. “And ‘thank you.’ I can say that. So I practiced that and I started working as a hostess down in Wall Street.”

Little more than 10 years later, Jin was a U.S. army officer stationed in Germany, overseeing 50 soldiers, and marveling at how far she had come in her life.

She decided early that the key to her dreams was education.  She started college while working in New York. She also met and married a man, but the marriage was difficult, and she found a way out by joining the Army.

Her English was poor and she was 10 years older than most of the other recruits. Basic training was grueling, but she persevered, and finished first in her class. The Army allowed her to continue her college studies and she would eventually become an officer.

She found other opportunities in the military, and she pursued one she thought was tailor-made for an immigrant from Asia. The Army employs regional specialists known as foreign area officers, and needed one in Japan. She applied, but was rejected. She says that did not stop her.

“Many cases, when someone turns you down, they just accept it, grumble and angry and accept it, and then go for some other route,” she said. “But I liked the program. I wanted the program so bad, so I went to Washington D.C., the decision makers, and I asked them, why was I turned down?”

She says Army officials worried a woman officer would face problems in a male-oriented country like Japan. She disputed the idea, and asked if Japanese officials looked down on Margaret Thatcher, former prime minister of Britain. Of course not, was the reply. 

“So it took me one day, and they reversed the decision,” she said.

Robertson represented the U.S. Army as liaison to the Japanese Self Defense Forces, the first woman to hold that position.

Jin Kyu Robertson graduating with a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2006

She also kept her focus on education. She completed a master’s degree at Harvard University in East Asian studies, and enrolled in a doctoral program, focusing on relations among the United States, Korea and Japan. After retiring from the Army with the rank of Major, she returned to Harvard to finish her Ph.D.

Robertson says she has always confronted her weaknesses head-on. She was afraid of heights, so enrolled in an Army Airborne program that forced her to parachute from a helicopter.

After she finished her doctorate, she started getting requests to give motivational speeches.

“I didn’t know I was able to speak in public, really,” she said. “Always, whenever I thought about speaking, even giving briefings in the military, my heart was pounding so bad and I was so nervous, I couldn’t even drink water.”

She says again she persevered, and found her confidence growing as the audiences responded.

“I found this amazing great exhilarating feeling, and I said, wow, I love this public speaking,” she admitted.

Jin Robertson says one of her proudest accomplishments was raising her daughter, Jasmin. Also a Harvard graduate, Jasmin has followed in her mother’s footsteps and serves as a captain in the U.S. Army.