"mediocre" "indifferent"
Do they have the same meaning (not good but not very bad)
Are two words interchangeable?
***** NOT A TEACHER *****
Kelvin,
Those two words can, indeed, be confusing.
I think that it depends on the context. That is,
it depends on what you are trying to say.
Yes, my dictionaries say that sometimes they are
synonyms, but sometimes they are
not.
(1) That newspaper is mediocre. That is, (as you said)
it is neither good nor horrible. It is so so. (ma ma hu hu -- as I think you
say in Mandarin.)
My dictionaries tell me that it means "average" or "ordinary."
But most people consider it to be an insult. For example: What
kind of teacher is Mr.X? Oh, he is OK. He is an ordinary
instructor. (Nothing great; nothing horrible) It would be very
insulting to say: "Oh, he is a mediocre instructor."
(2) I no longer go to Dr. X for my medical problems. Why?
Because he is indifferent toward my concerns. Maybe he is
not a mediocre doctor. Maybe he is a top doctor. But he simply
does not care about me. He does not welcome my questions and
he never offers me advice. One of my dictionaries gives a sentence
something like: Many (most?) young people are indifferent toward
foreign affairs. That is, they simply do not care about what is
happening in other countries. As we say in English, they could not care
less. Another example: when people walk down the street in my city,
there are some homeless people who ask for money. Some people
give them money; some people give them an angry look and refuse
to give them anything; some people are indifferent. That is, they walk
by as if the homeless people were invisible.
THANK YOU & HAPPY NEW YEAR