148 Baddies

Have you ever noticed that in American movies the villain or “bad person” is usually British? Josh and ShaoLan talk about bad people and why calling someone a bad person in Chinese can be playful and friendly while calling someone a good person in some situations can be a disaster!

In fact, the word for “bad” 壞/坏 can be used to describe anything that goes bad, such as food, or something that breaks, such as your phone! Meanwhile, the word for good 好 can also mean very, so 好壞/好坏 can mean “good or bad” / “quality” or it can mean “very bad,” depending on the context.

The word 壞/坏 means ‘bad’ and 人 means “person”, so 壞人/坏人 means “bad person.”