King of Industry

  Chapter 561 A scholar knows the world without going out

  The plane took off shortly after the purser left.

  In the cabin, Du Yitao, Sun Zhi, and Li Ru stabilized the plane, and invited Mao Zhichun, Wu Jianlong, and Zhao Guoyang to hold an internal seminar.

  The main issues discussed are, of course, some issues that need to be paid attention to during this trip.

  On the plane, the business class is basically completely occupied by the delegation.

  The few bosses sitting at the front and the entourage at the back are separated into two areas by two rows of empty seats, so it doesn't affect the meeting at all.

  After everyone was seated, Du Yitao, the head of the delegation sitting in the middle, spoke first.

   "Chairman Mao and Chairman Wu, this trip of our delegation carries an important mission. The two of you should be clearer than me about this, right?"

  After Du Yitao finished speaking, Mao Zhichun and Wu Jianlong looked at each other, nodded and said, "Understood, Director Du, the negotiation with Skoda Automobile Company this time is very important, and we all know it!"

  Du Yitao let out a "huh", turned his head to look at Zhao Guoyang and said, "Researcher Zhao, our trip to Prague this time involved not only the acquisition of 'Skoda Auto', but also other business matters."

   "You are the chief adviser of our delegation, we may have to listen to you for many things..."

   Speaking of this, Du Yitao smiled and said: "Researcher Zhao's ability in the mechanical industry, we have already heard about it."

   "I just wonder if you, Researcher Zhao, have any knowledge of the humanities, history, business and trade of Czechoslovakia?"

  After hearing the big man's question, Zhao Guoyang nodded and said, "Director Du, don't worry about this. I still know some basic information about the country of Czechoslovakia."

   Zhao Guoyang's words are not bragging. In fact, before his rebirth, he visited Czechoslovakia several times.

   Although Czechoslovakia is a small country, its industry has always been very developed.

  Before World War II, it was the seventh largest industrial country in the world, second only to America, Russia, Germany, England, France, and Apennines.

  Compared to emerging industrial countries like island countries, it is even stronger.

   Especially in the automobile industry and machine tool manufacturing industry, Czechoslovakia has a world-class level.

  Zhao Guoyang went to investigate several times at that time, just to discuss cooperation with a machine tool company in Prague.

  Since Director Du asked this question, Zhao Guoyang answered it realistically.

   Originally, Zhao Guoyang's answer was very objective, without any exaggeration.

  However, as a young man in his early twenties, he is so confident about things other than his own work, and he is somewhat disapproving of what others hear.

  As the director of the European Department of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, Sun Zhi has always been a person with high self-esteem.

  Although the old leader mentioned Zhao Guoyang in front of him several times, Sun Zhi never took it seriously in his heart.

  In his opinion, this young "Researcher Zhao" may indeed have two talents in the automobile industry and the machinery industry.

  But it would be an exaggeration to say that he is also proficient in foreign trade and commerce and trade between the two countries.

  After Zhao Guoyang said these words calmly, Sun Zhi frowned slightly, and said, "Researcher Zhao, I don't doubt what you mean."

   "It's just that, with all due respect, you seem to be visiting Czechoslovakia for the first time, right?"

  After listening to Director Sun's words, the current few bosses gradually put away their whispered voices and turned their attention to him.

  All those present here are people who have been trained for a long time, and they naturally understood the meaning behind Sun Zhi's words in an instant.

  Undoubtedly, Director Sun really questioned how much this Zhao Guoyang knew about the cultural history and business environment of Czechoslovakia.

  It was somewhat embarrassing for him to ask this question, but logically speaking, there was nothing wrong with it.

   After all, we are all on the same boat now. If Zhao Guoyang, the "Chief Consultant", does not have real talents, then whether it is Director Du or Sun Zhi, he can make preparations early.

   You know, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Trade must be permanent representatives in Prague.

  For the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in addition to the usual ambassador to the Czech Republic, there is also a minister who presides over the routine work of the embassy.

  Of course, commercial counselors, economic counselors, agricultural counselors, science and technology counselors, education counselors, cultural counselors and other relevant personnel are also indispensable.

   Among them, commercial counselors, economic counselors, and agricultural counselors are all under the dual leadership of the foreign department and the foreign trade department.

   Now Sun Zhi is worried about Zhao Guoyang's ability in business and trade, and wants to learn more about it.

  If Zhao Guoyang really fails, the delegation will ask for a few people from the embassy to assist the delegation in its daily work during its stay in Prague.

  After Sun Zhi asked this question, Du Yitao, Li Ru, and Wu Jianlong all cast puzzled looks at Zhao Guoyang.

  Although the three of them knew a little about Zhao Guoyang, they mostly heard about his abilities from other people.

  Especially in terms of business and trade, no one has heard anyone talk about the special features of this "Researcher Zhao", so naturally there is some hesitation at the moment.

  The only person in the field who has full confidence in Zhao Guoyang is Chairman Mao of Songqi Group.

   Mao Zhichun and Zhao Guoyang were the first to know each other, and they knew him very well.

  Whether it was the last trip to the country of Samba, or the several plans in his own factory later, Zhao Guoyang played an important role in it.

   Therefore, Chairman Mao firmly believed in Zhao Guoyang's ability in business and finance.

After several big shots cast their eyes on him at the same time, Zhao Guoyang took a sip of coffee and said slowly: "Director Sun, it is indeed my first time to go to Czechoslovakia, but this does not mean that I I don’t know much about this country.”

   "There is a saying that 'a scholar knows the world's affairs without going out'. I dare not say how deep my understanding of this country is. At least, there will be no problems in basic communication!"

  Listening to Zhao Guoyang's confident words, Sun Zhi frowned even tighter.

  Of course he knew that the other party should be capable. But no matter how capable you are, you should speak in a low-key manner in front of us diplomats traveling all over the world, right?

  Although he was already a little upset, Sun Zhi still didn't show it on the surface.

  He pondered for a moment, then asked with a half-smile: "Researcher Zhao is very confident in himself, this is a good thing."

   "If you don't mind, I have a few questions here that I would like to ask. Researcher Zhao, can you give me a little answer?"

  As the head of the European Department of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, Sun Zhi must be very good at understanding Eastern European countries and analyzing the trade of these countries.

  How could the question he asked be so simple?

  The big guy said it politely on the surface, but in his tone, there was obviously an intention to manipulate Zhao Guoyang.

Everyone thought that Zhao Guoyang would not agree easily, but after hearing what the other party said, Zhao Guoyang sat up straight, nodded indifferently and said: "Director Sun, please tell me, if you can answer, I will definitely Do your best!"

  Sun Zhi's eyes froze, then he nodded with a smile and said: "Okay, okay, then I will stop being disrespectful!"

  Sun Zhi took a sip of strong tea and said slowly, "First of all, it's a language problem."

   "I heard from Director Yao that you are not only proficient in English, but also proficient in Portuguese, French and other languages..."

   "So, which language is commonly used in the country of Czechoslovakia, researcher Zhao, do you know? Walking on the road, can you communicate freely with ordinary people in this country?"

  After hearing this question, Du Yitao and Li Ru looked at each other and nodded secretly.

   Indeed, the language problem is always the biggest problem when visiting foreign countries.

   Especially when visiting Eastern European countries such as Czechoslovakia and Serbia, the complexity of the language types is even more troublesome.

  Although Zhao Guoyang understands English, French, and Portuguese, these three foreign languages ​​still belong to the mainstream language family after all, so they are not too shocking.

  But how much does he know about the languages ​​of Eastern European countries?

   This is what everyone is curious about.

  After listening to Director Sun's question, Zhao Guoyang answered calmly without much thought: "Director Sun, I still have something to do with the language of the country of Czechoslovakia."

   "There are two languages ​​spoken in Czechoslovakia. They are Czech and Slovak. They, along with Polish and Sorbian, belong to the Slavic language family, the West Slavic branch..."

  Sun Zhi didn't expect Zhao Guoyang to really understand this, and the muscles on his face trembled a little.

Zhao Guoyang didn't notice the change in the other party's expression, and he continued to speak on his own: "Since Czechoslovakia is a country where the majority of people speak Czech, I will only speak Czech. Director, do you think it's okay?"

   "Uh... good, good!" Sun Zhi was startled by Zhao Guoyang's sudden question, and nodded subconsciously.

  Zhao Guoyang raised **** and said: "Czech is a very difficult language to learn. One of the reasons is that Czech has rich forms."

   "According to statistics, Czech has more than 200 forms, dozens of times that of English!"

  “These different forms in Czech allow the words in a sentence to be combined freely without worrying about word order.”

   "On the one hand, this is a characteristic of the Czech language; but on the other hand, this linguistic freedom also creates difficulties for scholars of these languages."

   Speaking of this, Zhao Guoyang paused for a moment, and then smiled: "However, you don't have to be scared by my words. In fact, the standard Czech language has both written and spoken forms."

  "In Prague, in daily oral communication, everyone generally uses the common Czech language, which has the characteristics of the dialect of the Bohemia region, and the inflection is much simpler than the standard language..."

  (end of this chapter)