The meaning of 'Sensei' (先生）
Everyone understands this...right?
I recently asked ChatGPT the question, “Which Japanese words are most commonly understood by non-Japanese speakers?” I won’t give you the answer in its entirety (ChatGPT gave definitions of all the words), but the top 15 words it gave me were: Sushi, Karaoke, Kimono, Samurai, Ninja, Manga, Anime, Sake, Sumo, Origami, Sayonara, Arigatou, Sensei, Kawaii, and Sakura.
I had a gut feeling that the word ‘sensei’ (or 先生 in Japanese script) might come up in this list. I would say that the word is recognized by a lot of non-Japanese speakers, but I’m not sure how well its usage is understood. I’d like to take a look at this in detail today.
The meaning of Sensei
Sensei is made up of the characters 先 (Sen) meaning ‘before’ and 生 (Sei) meaning ‘life.’ An interpretation of this word is that a sensei is someone who has lived (生) before (先) before you and therefore has a certain amount of life experience that is worthy of respect.
Although the word sensei is a noun it is also used as a kind of suffix called an honorific.
Honorifics
The word sensei is what is known as an honorific (or 敬称 (keishou)). Honorifics are applied in a contextual manner. Let’s cover a few common ones:
さん (san) is a common example of an honorific used to refer to people of equal status to you.
様 (sama) is an honorific that is used to refer to people of higher status to you. This can come in the form of them being guests, customers, or literal gods.
先生 (sensei) is the focus of today’s post and is an honorific used to refer to people who are experts in specific fields, doctors, lawyers, and teachers.
There are more honorifics than this but for the sake of brevity I’ll stick to just these for now.
Honorific usage
Honorifics are something that other people call you. You don’t refer to yourself using honorifics. Honorifics are added after the name of the person being referred to. A good example of this was how my name changed when I was talking to my old karate instructor’s wife (who was in charge of accounting and an English school):
Tony San: General conversation. (Context - Just a regular conversation)
Tony Sama: I have become a customer. (Context - I am going to be reminded to pay a fee)
Tony Sensei: I have become a teacher. (Context - I’m going to be asked to do some teaching)
These terms were used flexibly as my social position changed. It’s quite an interesting feature of the Japanese language.
Sensei is a word that frequently misused. I’m not here to tell people how they must or must not use the word. Languages evolve and ‘Sensei’ as a word in English is a little different to 先生 (Sensei) in Japanese.
Still, for those who would like to get everything as close to perfect as possible, I’d like to go over a few common mistakes as I see them.
Common mistake 1: Referring to yourself as sensei
In general, it’s unusual to introduce yourself by saying, “My name is Mr/Ms -name-.” Japanese is no different. Saying, “My name is Sensei -name-,” is as incorrect.
If you are a martial arts instructor and you want your students to call you sensei instead of something else then it is reasonable to say, “Please call me, -name- sensei.” This is similar to how a teacher would introduce themselves to a class of students, i.e. “Please call me, Mr/Ms -name-.”
In English you generally don’t state that your name includes Mr or Ms and that’s the same with honorifics in Japanese (including sensei).
Sensei is something other people call you. Not what you call yourself.
Common mistake 2: Name Sensei vs Sensei Name
Because honorifics like san/sama/sensei work in a similar way to Mr/Ms in English the word order often gets switched around when used by English speakers.
When speaking Japanese, the general order is, “-Name- → Sensei,” not “Sensei → -Name-.” In general Japanese people use the family name followed by an honorific but it is quite common when talking to foreigners that given name is used.
‘Sensei → Name,’ sounds a bit odd to Japanese speakers. It’s more natural to hear ‘Name → Sensei.’
Common mistake 3: Sensei isn’t technically a job or position
Outside of Japan sensei is often synonymous with “martial arts instructor.” That’s not really the case in Japan. Many professionals are referred to honorifically by calling the honorific ‘sensei.’ For example, 教師 (kyoushi : teacher), 講師 (koushi : lecturer), 教授 (kyoju : professor), 館長 (kanchou : president of a group), and 会長 (kaichou : chairman) are all examples of jobs/positions that can be referred to as “sensei.”
A karate instructor may be referred to as a 空手の先生 (Karate no sensei : Teacher of karate) by others. The word for ‘instructor’ in Japanese is 指導員 (shidouin) so a more accurate way of saying ‘karate instructor’ is 空手の指導員 (Karate no shidouin). This is just one example but in general it operates like this:
X is my sensei (referring to the instructor by an honorific instead of a title)
I am an instructor (referring to yourself by your title)
X is my karate sensei
I am a karate instructor
Evolution of language
Language is something that is endlessly evolving. Japanese uses loan words in a way that is not quite the same as English. The word ドライブ (doraibu : drive) doesn’t literally mean to drive a car, but ‘to go for a drive.’ Words like sensei that have been imported into the English language are not used in exactly the same way as they are in Japanese and take on nuanced meanings of their own. Sometimes the usage is complete nonsense…which is fine in isolation. But when there is overlap between concepts it can cause a bit of confusion.
Final thoughts
Personally, I’d say not to stress about it too much. But if you want to stress about it I hope this article helps with striving for more accurate usage of the word.
That’s enough language teaching for now. I may approach some other Japanese words like this in the future (especially ones with martial arts contexts).
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Anthony
Sempai...whete does thaf come in?
I always prefered Enoeda Sensei. I think i must have picked it up from Ohta Sensei. What is the plural? Senseis? Does the name still pre Sensei? Who comes firzt?