giriasis

Also, my first school was with people who part of a "everyone becomes a soke organization." I was told it was very unusual for someone to become a 'soke' then I went to a seminar and each head instructor was a "soke." That was after about 6 months of training with them when I realized they were full of it.

Oh, this problem is the reason I'm a big advocate of newbies of asking the instructors background. If they get all out of joint "like how dare you ask" or "how rude it is to ask about my background" then my advise is to steer clear of such people. Also, my advice is if they list about ten different high ranking ranks then they need to be suspicious. If you haven't been duped then your lucky. But putting off airs that you people should not ask about your rank, background or lineage (even if you come from a decent well known association/ style) makes it easier for these kinds to pull off their fraud.