Sifu vs. Sensei

Sifunoun

A pair of Cantonese terms, homophones, used in English to mean "master" or "teacher" in the context of martial arts, especially kung fu and tai chi, also used to denote "spiritual father" in esoteric uses.

Senseinoun

a Japanese (language) teacher.

Senseinoun

a suffix attached to the name of a teacher (principally in translations from Japanese)

Sensei

Sensei, Seonsaeng or Xiansheng (先生) is an honorific term shared in Japanese, Korean and Chinese; this is literally translated as or . In general usage, it is used, with proper form, after a person's name and means 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.