simonandmartina

Well, we're lucky that we married our best-friend. Having a strong friendship means that we LIKE each other, as well as loving each other. Some relationships just have one and not the other.

Also, we view marriage as a full-time job. It's not an achievement that you unlock and then forget about. It's not a status symbol. We got married because we want to live with each other and make each other happy. That's our full time job. Our careers and hobbies are part time. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but what I'm basically trying to say is that we know of couples that spend so much time focusing on their jobs and advancing their careers that they neglect their loved ones. They say that they're doing it for their loved ones, but I don't really see it. A relationship needs more than just money and houses. No?

Leigh and Soo Zee are very different stories.

We first brought on Soo Zee to edit our playlists. She was doing it for a while, but then we saw that she was getting bored of it, which she admitted to. Video editing wasn't her greatest passion. We asked her instead, then, if she wanted to be our studio manager, because we were opening up our studio at the time. She took on the job and flourished and loves it. We're happy she found something she loves :D

Leigh, on the other hand, knew from the get go she wanted to edit videos. She sent us an awesome email telling us how she could help, and we needed it, because we were editing all of our videos on our own at that time. She's formally trained from a yuunaverrcity or something like that, and used a bunch of terms that were over our heads. We were impressed :D

As for our videos, we've been trying to improve the filming quality as much as we can. Audio, video, stabilizing shots, getting better lighting, and also trying to improve our workflow. We used to spend hours trying to figure out how to do stuff that didn't really have that big of an impact on the final video. We've gotten better at that now :D

For starters, thank you for asking this so politely and not telling us that we're terrible evil spawn of Hitler and should be spit upon. It's appreciated. Really :)

Anyhow, we read the complaints that people make, and we take them into consideration as much as possible. It's difficult wading through the hateful language that surrounds it, but we do our best to get to the core of what people are saying.

And so, we do our best to change the language we use. We haven't said ghetto since the complaints. Haven't said pedonoona since the complaints. We do our best to be considerate for people of different orientations. We understand how people can get offended, and try to avoid that in future videos. We still have a lot of work to go, but we're trying. I hope people notice a change. I hope :)

I'm not sure if I agree with every complaint, though, but we are engaging with the criticism to the best of our abilities.

We had to apply for a business visa, which involved an investment of money into the country, setting up a business office, and a bunch of other paperwork. Every six months we have to go back to immigration and show them our documents and that we're legally earning money here. Immigration also stops by for random spot checks to make sure all of our documents are in order. We don't have permanent residence here. So, yeah, it's a bit tough. I sometimes envy people YouTubing from their own countries, and how they don't have to worry about earning the right to live there.

The route we took isn't really a popular route. We don't know many foreigners who set up a business here. It was a very challenging experience, but we've grown a lot from it, I think :D

When we started YouTubing, our viewership was just our parents. We did videos for them to show them what our lives were like here in Korea.

When we stopped teaching and got into YouTubing full-time, I think we were only getting 500k-1mil views a month or so? We're doing better than that now, fortunately :D

As for how our popularity rose, all I can say for that is "steadily." We didn't have any viral video that brought in thousands of subscribers (though we did the first Gangnam Style parody ever!). Every month our subscribers grow just the same as they did before.

We're not putting in an effort to gain more subscribers. We're just putting in effort to make the best videos we can make, and to have fun while doing so. If people watch our videos for that, then...hooray! But we did YouTube videos for two years without earning a penny, simply because we loved doing them, and I think that's the best advice we can give: don't get into YouTube because you want to be rich and famous. Do online videos because you're passionate about making online videos. Don't put the cart before the horse :D