Poll: How do you usually address your main aikido teacher off the mat?

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[AikiWeb System]

AikiWeb Poll for the week of January 11, 2004:

How do you usually address your main aikido teacher off the mat?

I don't do aikido
Last name + "sensei"
First name + "sensei"
"Sensei"
His/her first name
Mr/Mrs/Ms + last name
Other


Here are the current results (http://www.aikiweb.com/polls/results.html?poll_id=202).

[Amendes]

I call him Sir,

or Master <last name>

[Karen Wolek]

I picked "other" because sometimes I call him "Sensei" off the mat (and out of the dojo.....inside the dojo, always "Sensei") and sometimes I call him by his first name.

[Ron Tisdale]

I a'usually don a'dress'a my a'sensei...he'a dressa himself....

;)

Sorry, I know its bad, I couldn't resist...

Ron

[Josh Bisker]

He's Sensei when we're addressing him and Jim Sensei when we're talking about him publicly (and it's anybody's game what we call him when he's not looking). We always kinda giggle when someone says "Klar Sensei." It just doesn't feel like they're talking about the same person. And, you know, it sounds funny.

I am never in a bind when it comes to calling Jim something; it is a familiar pattern to me and i know what to expect.

On the other hand, I often run into trouble when i meet dojo-cho from abroad and they introduce themselves be their first names. I was at a seminar this year and met this really nice guy named Charley, who later on I realized everyone else was calling "Sensei." I kinda didn't know what was better - i was not sure if he was chill with me calling him by name since that's how he introduced himself, or if he expected me to get the hint from everyone else. He was mad down to earth so it didn't really end up mattering too much, but it made me think. I guess most folks aren't too uptight about it.

[Patrick]

Same way I do on the mat as Dr.Usher.

[Amendes]

The other day someone phoned me and said they were phoning on his behalf. They called them by his first name and i cringed!

heh

[Doka]

On the mat - Sensei.

Off the mat - Mate, John.

We are both Yudansha, but he us the senior.