I always had a feeling that Japanese martial arts are more formal than Chinese one. However, it turned out that most people call their instructor by their first name and address their instructor sensei only in dojo.
Btw, I call my taijiquan instructor by his first name.
Well I always say sifu Shelly and that’s about it. It takes nothing away from and I never get any looks in public. I don’t see why some people have a hard time addressing their cma sifu as sifu in public. IMO Americans don’t like someone with higher authority.
For example if sifu asks me to do something I’ll do it, but I won’t do it blindly.
I call him sifu out of respect for him ( ok an maybe a lil bit of fear:D ) [/B]
Of him, or the push ups, or what ever you’ll get?
Have learned the hard way not to refere to certain extreme stretches as “Chinese Kamasutra”(Push-ups 'till he was tired)
Don’t leave the windows to my truck down if it might rain. (100 push-ups for leaving the kwoon durring class)
Don’t be late for class (50 push-ups for every 5 minutes)
No matter how silly Rob looks doing the duck walk exersize, don’t lauph, even if everyone else thinks its funny, too. (My arms still have not recovered from that one)
And he does look funny doing that exersize. Not as silly as knife-edge walk, though. Everyone does that one silly, no dignified way to do that one.
Most of the time I call him Mike but I amke a point to call him sifu in open class. I don’t think that he has a preference as I would not if I was teaching a class.