Mean

What does ‘mean’ mean? Chinese always know what the second ‘mean’ means but they don’t know the next common meaning of ‘not nice’. They mistakenly think it means stingy.

Mean also means “not nice”. The opposite of nice is mean Mean also means “not nice”. The opposite of nice is mean. Things that we do or say can be mean.

This man is mean. This man is mean to his wife. Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This is a mean dog. Image courtesy of Mister GC at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It’s mean to hit people.

It’s mean to say a person is ugly. Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

“You’re mean!” or “That’s mean!” Image courtesy of Prawny at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Work in pairs. One student works in customer service Work in pairs. One student works in customer service. The other students acts like a mean customer who wants to return a camera but the store has a ‘no returns’ policy.