Sensei, also known as Seonsaeng, Tiên sinh or Hsien sheng/Xiansheng (corresponding to Chinese characters 先生), is an East Asian honorific term shared in Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and Chinese; it is literally translated as "person born before another" or "one who comes before". In general usage, it is used, with proper form, after a person's name and means "teacher". The word is also used as a title to refer to or address other professionals or people of authority, such as clergy, accountants, lawyers, physicians and politicians or to show respect to someone who has achieved a certain level of mastery in an art form or some other skill, e.g., accomplished novelists, musicians, artists and martial artists.
Etymology
The two characters that make up the term can be directly translated as "born before" and imply one who teaches based on wisdom from age and experience.The word prefaced by the adjective 大, pronounced "dai" (or "ō"), which means "great" or "large", is often translated "grand master". This compound term...