Two weeks ago Kelvin was visiting us at Taipei. I knew Kelvin since I was first time in Hungary. It has been perhaps 4 years now since I saw him last. I was always impressed by our great Taiwanese merchants who are all around the world. Kelvin's case is even more an interesting story. He was recruited by an elder neighbor who had been very successful in trading business in South America. To join Yomax at Budapest is the first job he had after graduated from school. He was told he will be enjoying a life of nobleman if he moved to Budapest. He didn't know the definition of nobleman's life can vary so much among people by then...Frankly, the cost of living 10 years ago at Budapest is so low that Kelvin and his wife can visit super market buying things without even look at the price tag but there are also things you can't buy with or without money.
I was most impressed by the fact that many Taiwanese merchants started to do business abroad when they don't even speak English, not to say the local language like Hungarian in Kelvin's case. With one calculator, you can negotiate price and sell your stuff. I have seen many Taiwanese merchants doing business this way in Budapest.
They have even developed some interesting translation to humor themselves and also memorize the Hungarian language. One famous example is a popular Hungarian term "tudom", which means "I know" or "I got it". It is frequently used in conversation. When told "tudom", our friends will respond in Taiwanese "taw-dong"(妥當), which means "it is good" or "let's do it". Well, it is not 100% correct but you feel funny when Hungarian and Taiwanese pronounce similar words respectively in their language and also really mean it...
Hungary does not have a border to the sea but she has a big lake named Balaton. It was big and shallow that you can play wind surfing miles away from the shore. Kelvin was happy to drive there with his new car and we crossed the lake on a ship.
My first time to Lake Balaton. It looks like the sea, right?
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