I took a few years of French forever ago. Never really understood when to use ce over il, along with all the hyphenated forms ce is pushed into.
Personally, I always tried to translate back literally, so qu'est-ce que c'est -> what is it/this that it/this is. But I've also felt like this isn't the best approach given it's through the lens of an English speaker.
Okay, but have you ever tried being sad even though rationally speaking everything is going super well?
( Don't worry about me, I managed to get out of that vibe :3 )
Not that it matters because the point comes across fine, and being hyper fixated on grammar is a form of gatekeeping, but “badly” seems weird here. It might just be an American English or regional American thing to me, but in school, the whole good/well & bad/poor thing was made pretty distinct. Good and bad were descriptors of action where well and poor were descriptors of feeling. I can do good (things) or do bad (things), but things can go well or go poorly.
Grammar stackexchange seems to disagree with me though
As an American, I would definitely use poorly in this context. But since it seems they're an English speaker learning French, I think it makes sense to say badly. It's a more direct translation for mal, the word they're learning