ODTN's Charles Smith talked with Adam-Paul Smolak, CEO of New York based Enjoy Media Corp. and its Nanjing subsidiary enjoyabc.com, about his life, his company's trials and successes in Nanjing:

enjoyabc.com is an English language content company that produces and distributes content for online and mobile devices throughout Mainland China. The company's mission is to "Build an accessible edutainment world" by creating a much needed "edutainment" platform for Chinese professionals looking to improve their English while ensuring the best return on investment for the company's shareholders. By blending together English language learning material and processes with today's cutting edge multi-media tools, enjoyabc.com aims to blend education and entertainment.

"In today's multi-cultural international business environment, it is imperative to not only understand foreign languages, but also understand the cultural frame that foreign languages are set in" Adam-Paul explained to me over a dish of Bulgogi beef; "I love Korean food, so much better than Chinese food..."

While Adam-Paul may abstain from praising Chinese food, he gives great accolades to the Chinese and Nanjingese when it comes to doing business. He points to the openness of the Chinese people, and smooth relationships with the Chinese government as mainstays that have helped ensure his business's commercial success. "Nanjing is a great place for businesses like mine at the moment because there is a dearth of foreigners doing business here. There is more potential for growth here." The only problems Adam-Paul faces is not having the already established network of relations a returning overseas Chinese might have, but this he feels is something that will change with time. The language barrier is not a problem, as after several years living and studying in China, he speaks proficient Chinese.

Enjoy Media Corp. and enjoyabc.com came to fruition after Adam-Paul studied abroad in Nanjing in 1999: "After studying in China, I realized the need that Chinese students had for high-quality language learning content, and saw the potential for a huge market." After some time with a Beijing based Chinese mobile internet company, he further developed his ideas for enjoyabc.com, and ultimately put them into action. Since 2002, he has been helping Chinese students of the English language learn in an exciting, interactive, and entertaining environment. "Edutainment" is the core philosophy of his business, a philosophy aimed at creating interest and excitement in studying English among Chinese professionals. By providing education material that meets the needs of language study as well as having high entertainment value, Adam-Paul believes his company can resolve many of the inefficiencies of English study in China.

All English language content provided by his company is written and edited by professional language instructors and writers from the United States, thereby ensuring content is free of grammatical errors and other blemishes all to commonly found among English language educational materials written by native Chinese. His company also employs many Chinese website designers and video content editors. This strong base of cutting edge technology merged with high-quality language content allows Adam-Paul to focus his efforts on marketing: "I aim to continue to develop strong, honest, and mutually beneficial relationships to establish the enjoyabc.com brand." By establishing relationships with universities and colleges, he has already ensured that enjoyabc.com's content will be employed to teach students at a college level.

As for the future, Adam-Paul plans to follow his company wherever it might take him: "I see Nanjing as my home for the next couple of years, but after that I cannot say. I will go where the opportunities are. However I imagine I will always have strong business connections to Nanjing, and I know I will always have a personal attachment to China and Nanjing in particular." However, with the growth opportunities in China and Nanjing in particular, I think it's safe to say that we can expect to see more of Adam-Paul in the years to come.