sensei

The term "先生", read ' in Japanese, in Chinese, in Korean, and ' in Vietnamese, is an honorific used in the Sinosphere. In Japanese, the term literally means "person born before another" or "one who comes before". It is generally used 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 "first born" and imply one who teaches based on wisdom from age and experience.