Sifu vs. Sensei

Sifu

Shifu (simplified Chinese: 师傅 or 师父; traditional Chinese: 師傅 or 師父), or sifu in Cantonese (sư phụ in Vietnamese) is a title for and role of a skillful person or a master. The character 師/师 means “skilled person” or “teacher”, while the meaning of 傅 is “tutor” and the meaning of 父 is “father”. 傅 and 父 are both pronounced “fu” with the same tones in Cantonese and Mandarin.

A similar term often used in Chinese is 老師/老师 (Cantonese Chinese pronunciation: lou5 si1; Mandarin Chinese pronunciation: lǎoshī), meaning “teacher” or literally “old person of skill”. Though pronounced identically and bearing similar meanings, the two terms are distinct and usage is different. The former term (師傅/师傅) bears only the meaning of “master”, is used to express the speaker’s general respect for the addressee’s skills and experience, and is likewise the term frequently used for cab drivers or other skilled laborers. Thus, a customer may use this term to address an automotive mechanic, for example. The latter term (師父/师父) bears the dual meaning of “master” and “father”, and thus connotes a linearity in a teacher-student relationship. In addressing a tradesperson, it would therefore be used only to address the speaker’s own teacher or master. In the preceding example, the mechanic’s apprentice would address his or her master using this term, but a customer would not. On the other hand, a religious personality, and by extension, experts of Chinese martial arts, can be addressed as “master-father” (師父/师父) or as (師傅/师傅) in all contexts.

Sensei

Sensei (can be pronounced “Sensai” as well), Sinsang, Sonsaeng, Seonsaeng or Xiansheng (先生) is an honorific term shared in Chinese honorifics and Japanese honorifics that is 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 persons 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.