<P> Senpai (先輩 (せん ぱい)) is used to address or refer to one's elder colleagues in a school, dojo, or sports club . So at school, the students in higher grades than oneself are senpai . Teachers are not senpai, but rather they are sensei . Neither are students of the same or lower grade: they are referred to as kōhai . In a business environment, those with more experience are senpai . </P> <P> Sensei (先生 (せんせい), literally meaning "former - born") is used to refer to or address teachers, doctors, politicians, lawyers, and other authority figures . It is used to show respect to someone who has achieved a certain level of mastery in an art form or some other skill, such as accomplished novelists, musicians, artists and martial artists . In Japanese martial arts, sensei typically refers to someone who is the head of a dojo . As with senpai, sensei can be used not only as a suffix, but also as a stand - alone title . The term is not generally used when addressing a person with very high academic expertise; the one used instead is hakase (博士 (はかせ), lit . "Doctor" or "PhD"). </P> <P> Sensei can be used fawningly, and it can also be employed sarcastically to ridicule such fawning . The Japanese media invoke it (rendered in katakana, akin to scare quotes or italics in English) to highlight the megalomania of those who allow themselves to be sycophantically addressed with the term . </P> <P> Shi (氏 (し)) is used in formal writing, and sometimes in very formal speech, for referring to a person who is unfamiliar to the speaker, typically a person known through publications whom the speaker has never actually met . For example, the - shi title is common in the speech of newsreaders . It is preferred in legal documents, academic journals, and certain other formal written styles . Once a person's name has been used with - shi, the person can be referred to with - shi alone, without the name, as long as there is only one person being referred to . </P>

What does the suffix chi mean in japanese