Good and bad, for better or worse  by Mark Schreiber  Special To
The Japan Times  One approach to acquiring new vocabulary that
I’ve always found effective is to seek out the 反対語 (hantai-go,
antonyms) of words. To prove my point, how about looking at
words that relate to “good” and “bad,” which are about as
opposite as you can get.  The word for good, 良い (yoi, also read
ryō), is often written using only hiragana. However, sticking
with the kanji opens the door to many words, since 良 can be used
as a descriptive prefix to indicate that anything is good, such
as 良馬 (ryōba, a fine horse).  Yoi, or ryō, work equally well
with abstract meanings, such as 良心 (ryōshin, literally a good
heart, i.e. one’s conscience) as used in expressions like
彼の良心が咎める (kare no ryōshin ga togameru, his conscience pricks
him).  You can easily switch 良 to a negative meaning by adding 不
(fu or bu) such as in 不良少年 furyō shōnen, a boy gone bad, i.e.,
juvenile delinquent.  I occasionally run into the expression
良妻賢母 (ryōsai kenbo, a good wi