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Old 10-15-2002, 12:56 AM   #27
Chris Tan
Dojo: Aikido Shinju-Kai
Location: Singapore
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 9
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Trying to remember my elementary Chinese education....

"搶 sensei" - the Chinese characters are the same as the Japanese ones. In the modern context, "sensei" is used like "Mr" in English

However, during the Chinese dynastic periods, "sensei" was meant to address respected individuals who were usually, but not always, teachers or scholars. These "sensei's" may teach in a informal sense such as the role of a advisor. An example would be the famous Zhuge Liang, who was the advisor to Liu Bei during the 3 Kingdoms period. In this case, Liu Bei would call Zhuge Liang - 搶 sensei.

So, although we would not use the word "sensei" to indicate a teacher in the modern context (The Chinese counterpart of the word 'Sensei' is lao-shi (Vt: old teacher), the word still has a connotation of being a teacher to it. To the native Chinese speaker, they would understand the difference between these 2 meanings intuitively.

Now, although this explanation is based on a Chinese context, I'm willing to bet that the meanings are the same in a Japanese context.

I'll try to supply the meaning of shihan in my next post if I have the time to check it out.
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