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Old 02-15-2011, 05:45 AM   #40
Alex Megann
Dojo: Southampton Aikikai
Location: Southampton
Join Date: Sep 2004
Posts: 401
United Kingdom
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Re: Who to call "Sensei"?

Quote:
Joshua Reyer wrote: View Post
I'm 99.999% sure you misheard something here, most likely something ending in "-mase". It would be highly irregular to call customers "sensei" unless a) you know them, and b) you know they are normally addressed as "sensei", from being a teacher, doctor, lawyer, politician, or writer. Customers in Japan are addressed as "okyakusama", not "sensei". In nine years of living in Japan, in city and country, I've never seen a vendor or salesclerk call a customer "sensei".
Hmm. Maybe I did mis-hear in Shinjuku - I was quite tired and jetlagged at the time.

In the case of the lady in the supermarket, though, I was pretty sure what I heard - perhaps she had had experience in the martial arts?

Alex
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