> I haven't heard this word since my SAT-prep classes. It means "chew". In case there are English-2nd language people here.
There's an interesting -- understandable but very wrong -- viewpoint that the right way to form sentences that a second-language speaker can understand is to talk in the way you might talk to a toddler.
Reality is pretty much the opposite. A toddler has perfect grasp of their language's grammar and is likely to know common words, less likely to know uncommon words. For best results, you'd communicate with a toddler using complex sentences and "easy" vocabulary.
A foreign learner has a much shakier grasp of the grammar and may have a pretty spotty vocabulary. But they're also likely to have a dictionary. And uncommon words are much easier to understand, given a dictionary, than common words are. The fact that they're uncommon means they don't have the wide variety of meanings and usages[1] that common words do. For best results, you'd communicate with a foreigner using simple sentences and "difficult" vocabulary.
[1] For reference, here are the ABC dictionary glosses for the very common Mandarin word 做:
> And uncommon words are much easier to understand, given a dictionary, than common words are. The fact that they're uncommon means they don't have the wide variety of meanings and usages.
A somewhat related phenomenon is that many fancy words in European languages have Latin or Greek roots, so foreign language speakers can correlate with a similar word in their own language, or, for those of us who wasted some of our youth on this, may even be familiar with the word in the original language.
Using "chew" rather than "masticate" is not talking to someone like they are a toddler though. It's the usual way you would explain the action to someone else.
If I say I'm talking to someone like they're a toddler the point of that is I'm speaking differently than I would to an adult. Using the word "chew" would not be something I'd avoid if talking to an adult.
For example, "hi, how are you?" Is something you could say to an adult or a child. It's not "speaking to someone like they are a child" though.
But correcting the original "masticate" to "chew" is an adjustment you make based on the mentality I described. As multiple comments have pointed out, "masticate" is not generally more difficult for a second-language speaker to understand than "chew" is, and in some common cases (Spanish, French...) it's considerably easier. The correction was targeted at native speakers, on the theory that they had limited vocabulary, but justified as if it was targeted at foreigners. If the intention was really to benefit foreigners, that impulse was misplaced, for exactly the reasons I detailed.
> For example, "hi, how are you?" Is something you could say to an adult or a child. It's not "speaking to someone like they are a child" though.
The example we have here is more along these lines:
A: Salutations!
A: Oh, I'm sorry -- I meant, "how are you?"
This is an example of speaking to someone like they are a child. You come out with a natural (for you)[1] word choice, and then pre-emptively decide your interlocutor can't handle it, so you adjust to something you believe is simpler. You are speaking differently than you would normally.
There's an interesting -- understandable but very wrong -- viewpoint that the right way to form sentences that a second-language speaker can understand is to talk in the way you might talk to a toddler.
Reality is pretty much the opposite. A toddler has perfect grasp of their language's grammar and is likely to know common words, less likely to know uncommon words. For best results, you'd communicate with a toddler using complex sentences and "easy" vocabulary.
A foreign learner has a much shakier grasp of the grammar and may have a pretty spotty vocabulary. But they're also likely to have a dictionary. And uncommon words are much easier to understand, given a dictionary, than common words are. The fact that they're uncommon means they don't have the wide variety of meanings and usages[1] that common words do. For best results, you'd communicate with a foreigner using simple sentences and "difficult" vocabulary.
[1] For reference, here are the ABC dictionary glosses for the very common Mandarin word 做:
1. make; produce
2. cook; prepare (food)
3. do; act; engage in
4. be; become
5. write; compose
6. celebrate
7. be used as
8. form/contract a relationship
9. pretend; feign
10. (slang) make love
11. play tricks to punish somebody