날 생(生) – Korean Hanja(한자) #8
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Everything has its birthday. After its birth, it lives and die. Today's character 날 생(生) is the character for birth.
생 as birth
The basic meaning of 생 is birth(낳다).
생일(生日) is birthday. As we have learned before, 일 is sun or date.
생산(生産) is produce because 산(産) means birth or produce. Both 생 and 산 have similar meanings.
탄생(誕生) is birth. It is usually used to special person like prince, princess or historically great people. It is also used for some theory or system like 민주주의의 탄생(birth of democracy).
When is your birthday?
생산량을 늘려보기 위해 노력 중이다.
We are trying our best to produce more.
온 국민이 왕자의 탄생을 축하했다.
Every citizen celebrated the birth of prince.
생 as live/life
After birth, everything lives. Because of that, 생 has the meaning, live, life, alive.
생활(生活) is life as 활(活) means to live. 생활 is used with words like 학교, 취미, etc. It is usually used to describe our daily life in some organization or to do something.
인생(人生) is life as human because 인 means human or person. It is sometimes used to call entire life.
고생(苦生) is hardness in life because 고 is bitter or hardness.
평생(平生) means your whole lifetime. 평 means flat or even. It is a bit hard to guess why the meaning whole came from flat. It is a kind of word that you should memorize without too much guessing.
평생 고생만 할 것 같았는데, 내게도 이런 날이 오는구나.
I thought that I would live in hardness in my whole lifetime, but days like now really came to me.
인생에서 제일 중요한 것이 무엇일지 생각해 본 적 있니?
Have you ever thought what is the most important in life?
취미 생활로 그림을 그려 보고 있어요.
I am drawing pictures as my hobby.
생 as fresh.
When something dies, it starts to decay. Then, it becomes corrupt and far from being fresh. Thanks to this idea, 생 is sometimes used for freshness. When you see 생 in flyers from supermarkets or 마트s, it means fresh. Examples are 생 돼지고기(fresh pork), 생 감자(fresh potato), etc.
If a TV show is not stored in other format but it is broadcast to the world on the spot, then it is fresh show, so it is called 생방송. It is similar in English, too. It is live show.