What does 이생망 (isaengmang) mean? The Korean joke that “this life is ruined”

The night before finals, in a university library reading room, someone has stuck a Post-it on the corner of their laptop: “이생망. Next life I'll study ahead.” A 24-year-old student in a 2016 Kyunghyang Shinmun article said much the same — that during exam season, people say “this life is ruined” a lot.

But the survey in that same article found that fewer than half used it purely as a joke. A grumble about one failed exam and resignation about a whole life fit into the same three syllables — and that's why 이생망 has lasted.

In 2019 the Seoul Economic Daily described 이생망 as a single word for the frustration and helplessness young people feel collectively — something you blurt out after failing an exam or a job application, but also an everyday word among young people facing a tough job market. The Asia Economy's slang column went further, saying it carries a sense of having no more hope in society or life. Same word, very different weights depending on who says it.

• 범위 잘못 알고 공부함. 이생망…Studied the wrong chapters. 이생망…Class group chat, 30 minutes before the exam
• 알람 다섯 개 다 끄고 잤어. 이번 생은 망했다Turned off all five alarms and slept. This life is ruined.The lightest kind of 이생망, on the morning subway
• 서류만 스무 번째 떨어졌어. 진짜 이생망인가 싶다Twentieth rejection at the application stage. Maybe it really is 이생망.Somewhere between joking and not
• 이생망이라고? 아직 1회차야. 남은 게 훨씬 많아이생망? You're still on your first run. There's way more left.A friend pushing back (the right answer)
• 이생망? 이씨 생일 망했다는 거냐?이생망? You mean Mr. Lee's (이씨) birthday (생일) got ruined?An uncle (whose surname is Lee)

이생망 hit the news in earnest in the mid-2010s, when young Koreans were calling their country 헬조선 (“Hell Joseon”) and sorting people by the “spoon” — gold or dirt — their parents' wealth gave them. In January 2016, Kyunghyang Shinmun devoted an entire installment of its series on angry youth to “This life is ruined,” reporting that the phrase had settled into young people's everyday talk alongside Hell Joseon and “dirt spoon.”

Literature had a similar line first. Asia Economy set 이생망 beside a line from poet Hwang Ji-woo's “A Wall Clock in the Mirror”: “나, 이번 생은 베렸어” — “I've spoiled this life.” A poet's sigh turned, decades later, into a three-syllable abbreviation. There's no evidence, though, that the poem is the slang's direct source.

One: it lets you say something heavy lightly. “I've given up” is hard to say; “이생망 lol” is easy. The abbreviation and the laugh take the weight off. 현타 (“when reality hits”) works the same way.

Two: the pessimism was real. In a late-2018 survey by the Presidential Committee on Policy Planning, cited by the Seoul Economic Daily, only 31% of people in their 20s and 24% in their 30s agreed that “anyone with ability can succeed.” Just 27% and 29% agreed that “you can get back up after one failure.”

Three: it leaves an exit called “next life.” 이생망 only says this life is ruined. It sounds resigned, but there's a gamer's sense of a reset button in it. That's why, the moment a friend replies “you're still on your first run,” the conversation can turn back into a joke.

In December 2015, Kyunghyang Shinmun asked 1,000 people aged 20–34 (students, job seekers and employees) about 이생망. 41.3% (413 people) said they had thought it, with clear differences between groups.

More telling is how people read the phrase. 47.4% understood it as a joke, but 591 respondents took it to mean “my life won't get better from here” (multiple answers allowed). The paper reported that students used it even for small things like a failed exam and tended to blame themselves, while job seekers and employees pointed more to structural problems. Resignation wearing a joke's face — that's what the numbers say.

If 이생망 is the language of giving up, the words that followed point a little differently. The best known is 갓생 (“god-life”), about stacking up small, diligent days. Instead of a dramatic turnaround, young people's catchphrases are shifting toward collecting small proof that today's tasks got done. The two coexist, of course: resolve to live a 갓생 in the morning, declare 이생망 at night. Our editor's days mostly go like that.

So 이생망 is resignation said with a laugh — and the laugh may be what makes it bearable. The owner of that library Post-it presumably sat the exam the next day, without waiting for the next life. If you have a sharper definition, add it to the 이생망 entry in the dictionary.