Simon and Martina
Simon and Martina is a YouTube video blog channel created by Canadian expatriates Simon Stawski and Martina Sazunic. Originally launched as Eatyourkimchi, from 2008 to 2016, the channel featured videos about their lives in South Korea, including food, cultural differences, and popular media. In 2012, they registered "Eat Your Kimchi" as a company in South Korea and opened their own studio in Seoul, which remained operational until 2015. In 2016, Stawski and Sazunic moved to Tokyo, Japan, where they lived until 2020. During their stay, they produced a video series on Japanese food and culture titled "Eat  Your Sushi". Their channel was rebranded as "Simon and Martina" to reflect the change. As of May 2021, the channel has 1.37 million subscribers. Background. Simon Stawski and Martina Sazunic met in 2005 during a poetry class at the University of Toronto, and both earned a Bachelor's Degree in Education and Art. After marrying, the two moved to Bucheon, South Korea in 2008 to teach English abroad. At the time of their arrival, there had been threats of violence between North and South Korea. As a result, they uploaded their first video on YouTube as an attempt to show  their parents that they were safe, which was a video of them eating at Incheon International Airport. Originally, the video blogs were made for their friends and family, but it later expanded to documenting "fun and quirky things" about Korea, and they later titled their channel "Eat Your Kimchi". Soon, they experienced a rise in viewership in 2009. They were several of the first non-Korean bloggers whose content was centered on Korea, particularly on YouTube. In 2011, after quitting their jobs as teachers, Stawski and Sazunic became full-time bloggers living off the ad revenue from their YouTube videos  and website. The popularity of "Eat Your Kimchi" has led them to be invited on South Korean television programs such as "Heart to Heart", "Quilt Your Korean Map", "Star King", and "Running Man". On September 5, 2012, Stawski and Sazunic launched a fundraiser on Indiegogo for setting up a business and for a studio in Seoul to film. The fundraiser met its goal of $40,000 in less than seven hours and raised more than $100,000. By 2013, Stawski and Sazunic registered "Eat Your Kimchi" as a business and relocated from Bucheon to Seoul. Video producers Soo Zee Kim  and Leigh Cooper were hired as "Eat Your Kimchi"'s interns and later appeared in their videos. On August 9, 2014, in collaboration with the YouTube channel "Talk to Me in Korean", Stawski and Sazunic opened You Are Here Cafe, a cafe situated in Hongdae for language exchange and Korean language classes. Stawski and Sazunic met Adam Swarts, the CEO of Japanese media company Breaker, at a video industry event in the United States, who offered to sign them onto his company and bring them over to Japan. They accepted, having decided to expedite their travel plans due to the  increasing severity of Sazunic's Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. In 2015, Stawski and Sazunic closed down "Eat Your Kimchi"'s studio to move to Kichijōji in Tokyo, Japan the following year. Their video series was renamed "Eat Your Sushi", and the channel itself was also renamed "Simon and Martina" during the rebranding. In 2020, they moved back to Canada, and on February 11, 2021, they announced on Instagram that they had divorced but will continue to post new content. Video series. "Simon and Martina" highlights cuisine, lifestyle, and recommended locations from abroad. When Stawski and Sazunic were living in South Korea , their content also featured Korean popular media, such as K-pop and Korean dramas. Reception. In 2011, "Eat Your Kimchi" was the 18th most popular YouTube channel in South Korea. "The Korea Herald" included "Eat Your Kimchi" in a list of 21 of "the nation's most useful websites." On the website "Hiexpat.com", it was also voted the best expat blog in South Korea in 2011. Elysabeth Hahm from "Yonhap News" noted that Stawski and Sazunic allowed tourists to gain information from a local's perspective that was not present in guidebooks. On the other hand, David Oh and Chuyun  Oh, through the periodical "Communication, Culture & Critique", criticized "Eat Your Kimchi", describing Stawski and Sazunic's approach towards Korean culture as ethnocentric and orientalist.