I always thought we weren't very formal at our dojo, until my teacher told me that one of our students had trained somewhere else and told him that those people weren't as strict as we were...
Seriously, we do have some formal stuff, like not coming in during class, waiting to be acknowledged by the teacher if we're late... but we also have a lot of fun on the mat and talking is definitely allowed as long as it doesn't get to distracting. And we all seem to be very nice people, so we've never seemed to have any problems with respect - it comes naturally. Not the fearsome type, the friendly one. I'm glad I call my teachers by their first name and can invite them to my partys, get drunk with them and joke around a lot, while at the same time taking them seriously on the mat and accepting their superiour skills.
