BTS Member RM’s U.N. Speech Is Now Being Used in Schools

Suzannah Weiss
Updated
That’s one way to make class more exciting.

A month after the release of their album Love Yourself: Answer, BTS's RM took his message of self-love to the United Nations in an inspirational speech this September. For the group's partnership with UNICEF's global initiative Generation Unlimited, which works toward "increasing opportunities and investments for children and young people," he invited the audience to "find your name and find your voice by speaking yourself."

The speech made a big splash, with The Washington Post's video of it getting over 500,000 views, but its impact has gone even beyond those who watched it. Several schools have incorporated RM's words into their tests, Soompi reports.

Some high school students in Korea had to put the paragraphs of the speech in the right order for their English midterm. Another Korean student in elementary school tweeted that they saw the video in class and then received a translation of the speech. The speech has also found its way into tests in Singapore and Vietnam.

In his speech, RM opened up about his own struggles with self-esteem. "I used to imagine that I was a superhero who could save the world," he said. "In an intro to one of our early albums, there's a line that says, 'My heart stopped when I was maybe nine or ten.' Looking back, I think that's when I began to worry about what other people thought of me, and started seeing myself through their eyes. I stopped looking up at the night skies, the stars, I stopped daydreaming. Instead, I just tried to jam myself into the molds that other people made. Soon, I began to shut out my own voice and started to listen to the voices of others."

"After releasing our Love Yourself albums, and launching the Love Myself campaigns, we started to hear remarkable stories from our fans all over the world how our message helped them overcome their hardships in life and start loving themselves," he added. It looks like his message continues to touch people in unexpected ways.

Related: RM from BTS Gave a Powerful Speech About Self-Love to the United Nations

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