Eatyourkimchi facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Eatyourkimchi |
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Simon Stawski (left) and Martina Sazunic (right) at a fan meeting during KCON 2012
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| YouTube information | |
| Years active | 2008–present |
| Genre |
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| Subscribers | 1.37 million |
| Total views | 486 million |
| Network | Breaker |
| Subscriber and view counts updated as of June 6, 2021. | |
Eatyourkimchi is a popular YouTube channel started by Simon Stawski and Martina Sazunic from Canada in 2008. They made videos about their lives in South Korea, sharing fun facts about Korean food, culture, and popular media like K-pop.
In 2016, Simon and Martina moved to Tokyo, Japan. They started a new video series called Eatyoursushi, focusing on Japanese food and culture. Their channel name changed to Simon and Martina to show this new focus. In 2021, they changed the channel name back to Eatyourkimchi. Martina later left the channel in 2022 to work on her own projects. By May 2018, their channel had over 1.3 million subscribers!
Contents
How Eatyourkimchi Started
Simon Stawski and Martina Sazunic met in 2005 while studying at the University of Toronto. After they got married, they moved to Bucheon, South Korea, in 2008 to teach English.
When they first arrived, they uploaded a video to YouTube to show their families back home that they were safe. This first video showed them eating a Korean stew called sundubu-jjigae at Incheon International Airport. At first, their videos were just for friends and family. But soon, they started sharing "fun and quirky things" about Korea with everyone. They named their channel Eatyourkimchi. Their videos quickly became popular in 2009. They were among the first non-Koreans to make YouTube videos focused on Korean culture.
Becoming Full-Time YouTubers
In 2011, Simon and Martina stopped teaching. They became full-time YouTubers, earning money from their videos and website. Because Eatyourkimchi was so popular, they were invited on South Korean TV shows. Some of these shows included Heart to Heart, Quilt Your Korean Map, Star King, and Running Man.
On September 5, 2012, Simon and Martina asked their fans for help to open a studio in Seoul. They started a fundraiser on Indiegogo. They wanted to raise $40,000, but they reached their goal in less than seven hours! They ended up raising over $100,000. By 2013, they officially registered Eatyourkimchi as a business. They also moved from Bucheon to Seoul. They even hired video producers, Soo Zee Kim and Leigh Cooper, who sometimes appeared in their videos. On August 9, 2014, they opened a cafe in Hongdae called You Are Here Cafe. It was a place for people to practice languages and learn Korean.
Moving to Japan
Simon and Martina met Adam Swarts, who ran a Japanese media company called Breaker. He invited them to join his company and move to Japan. They decided to move sooner than planned because Martina was dealing with a health condition.
In 2015, they closed their studio in South Korea. The next year, they moved to Kichijōji in Tokyo, Japan. Their new video series was called Eatyoursushi (meaning "Eat Your Sushi"). The channel itself was renamed Simon and Martina to match their new focus. In 2020, they moved back to Canada. On February 11, 2021, they shared on Instagram that they had divorced. However, they said they would keep making new videos together. The YouTube channel also went back to its original name, Eatyourkimchi. On October 13, 2022, Martina announced that she would no longer post on the Eatyourkimchi channel. She wanted to focus on her own YouTube channel, King Kogi.
Video Series and Content
The Simon and Martina channel (and later Eatyourkimchi again) showed off different foods, lifestyles, and cool places from abroad. When Simon and Martina lived in South Korea, their videos also featured popular Korean entertainment, like K-pop music and Korean TV shows.
- Music Mondays: This part of their channel featured reviews of the newest K-pop songs. They used to upload these videos every Monday.
- TL;DR: Too Long; Didn't Read: In this series, Simon and Martina answered questions from fans about life and culture in South Korea. These videos were usually uploaded on Wednesdays.
- K-Crunch Indie: Starting in 2013, this series helped promote independent music bands in South Korea. They would upload these videos on Sundays.
- Eatyoursushi: After moving to Japan in 2016, Simon and Martina created this video series. It showed off Japanese food and culture.
