BanKimoon,theNewUNChief联合国新掌门潘基文
What he is today is partly due to his excellent language skills. When Ki-moon was a middle school student, his English teacher told students to write out what they had learned on the day 10 times. Ban faithfully followed and that way memorized4  whole English sentences. He was even able to make English educational materials for his classmates when he was a high school freshman.
A chance to improve his English further came thanks to5  the Chungju fertilizer factory. Some 20 American engineers and their family members were living nearby. The wives of the American engineers took turns6  and taught people to speak English, and Ban Ki-moon from Chungju High School was the top. He memorized whatever was written in English like a madman.
When he was a high school junior, Ban was chosen to participate in the VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) program. In all, four students were selected from Korea and when Ban made it, “the whole city was overjoyed.”(Ban’s brother Ban Ki-sang). When the time came for
him to visit the U.S. for a month in the summer of his high school senior year, students at Chungju Girls High School delivered the lucky bags they made as gift for Americans to Ban.
Yoo Soon-taek, who was the school’s student council president, represented her school—and got married to Ban in 1971, a year after he passed the national diplomat’s exam. Their union began in a humble single room in Seoul. On his trip to the U.S., Ban and the other foreign students met President John F. Kennedy in Washington. Ban has often looked at his picture with the president during his rise from a career diplomat to foreign minister and, probably, UN secretary-general.
Career Decisions
After his family became financially strapped7, Ban had to work his way through school and received his bachelor’s degree in international relations from Seoul National University. He passed the national diplomat’s exam second after later foreign minister Choi Sung-hong. At the time, Ban told his family, “I’ve always been top; this is the first time in my life that I’ve sli
d to second place.” He was No. 1 again among new diplomats waiting for their first assignment after arduous8  training, when he got an assignment to the Korean Embassy in the U.S. But instead, he volunteered to work in India.“Ki-moon volunteered to work in India to offer financial support to our family,” his brother Ki-sang recalls.“He thought that if he worked in the U.S., he wouldn’t be able to save money.”
Working in India, Ban met Lho Shin-young, who was to have a great influence on Ban’s life as a diplomat. Lho had been sent to India to help Korea establish bilateral9  ties, and noticed that Ban had superb10  English skills, agility11, good judgment and diligence.
After becoming the Korean Ambassador to India after the two nations established diplomatic ties in 1973, Lho publicly praised Ban in a meeting. In his memoirs12, Lho recalled his days in India and wrote,“Ban Ki-moon, who would help me and do many things(in India), was still newly married the first time I met him.” Lho soon became head of what was then the Agency for National Security Planning and the nation’s prime minister, and he appointed Ban as senior protocol13 secretary to the prime minister. That was the start of what seemed Ban’s unstoppable14  rise through the ranks.
New UN Chief
    It’s wonderful when teenage dreams come true after a lot of hard work. Ban Ki-Moon, foreign minister of the Republic of Korean (ROK), knows this only too well. He dreamt of being a diplomat from a young age and now the 62-year-old has become the world’s top diplomat.
On Oct. 13, 2006, the UN Security Council appointed Ban to take the place of15  Kofi Annan. And this January he became the first Asian to take the post in 35 years.
editors in chiefAnnan congratulated his successor16, hailing17  him as“a man with a truly global mind”. And he repeated the greeting made more than 50 years ago by the first UN secretary general, Norway’s Trygve Lie:“You are about to take over18  the most impossible job on Earth.”
Ban’s down-to-earth19  efforts gave him the ability to get along with20  everyone. After being a diplomat for 36 years, he made many friends but no enemies. But critics think his g
entleness might make him ready to give in21. They doubt whether he can take a strong stand on22  burning issues like the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s(DPRK) nuclear programme.
As the DPRK announced a successful nuclear test, experts said the UN’s new boss would be challenged by his first tough task. But Ban, who played a leading role in past nuclear talks with DPRK, seems to have his own ideas23.
“Ban has a typical oriental style, mild but determined.” Says Yoon Young-Kwan, former foreign minister of the ROK.“he may look soft from the outside, but inside he has strong views.”
1944年，潘基文出生于韩国忠清北道的阴城郡，一年级时搬到了忠州市。在学校里，他总是名列前茅。在父亲所经营的仓储生意破产往常，他的家庭生活殷实富足。他最小的妹妹潘庆希说：“我的父母育有四个亲小孩和两个女儿，基文排行老大。从小学起，他一直出类拔萃，以至于我们这些弟妹在学生时代，常被人称为‘潘基文的弟弟或妹妹’。”
语言能力
他之因此有今天部分得益于他专门的语言能力。在中学时代，英语老师让学生把当天所学的内容抄写10遍，然而潘基文不仅忠实地抄写，而且把所有英语句子背了下来。到了高一，他甚至能够给同学们预备英语学习材料。
忠州化肥厂为他进一步提高英语提供了大好机会。大约20名美国工程师及其家属住在邻近。这些工程师的夫人们轮番教大伙儿说英语，而忠州中学的潘基文是最好的学生。他就像着了魔似地把英语材料统统背下来。
高二时，潘基文被选择出来参加美国理想服务队（VISTA）。当时，韩国各地仅选派四名学生，而潘基文确实是其中之一。“整个忠州市都为之雀跃。”（潘基文之弟潘基生语）。高三暑期，他赴美访问一个月。临行前，忠州女子高中的学生们把她们制作的福袋交给潘基文，让他转赠美国人。