Question about the use of 先生
I wrote a letter to one of my past Japanese teachers I had about 3-4 years ago. He is still a teacher, but not my teacher. Since he is still teaching, would it still be appropriate for me to refer to him as ○○先生？I have been curious about this for a long time, so any help with this would be appreciated!I forgot to mention that he only helped me with Japanese, but he teaches English at a college now. If that information matters..

Question

Question about the use of 先生
I wrote a letter to one of my past Japanese teachers I had about 3-4 years ago. He is still a teacher, but not my teacher. Since he is still teaching, would it still be appropriate for me to refer to him as ○○先生？I have been curious about this for a long time, so any help with this would be appreciated!I forgot to mention that he only helped me with Japanese, but he teaches English at a college now. If that information matters..

Answer

Yes, it would.

BTW, 先生 is a title, like Mr, Mrs, etc, and is added to the end of the name.
鈴木先生、田中先生、本田先生、。。。
Thus it is always appropriate to address him as such

先生 is NOT an occupation. Your friend is not a 先生, he is a 教師.

Answer

If his or her occupation is a teacher and you have never been teached by him, we Japanese call him 先生.

When we have respect to someone, we tend to call him 先生 though he is not a teacher.
(Lawyers, doctors including surgeons, dentists and veterinarians, statesmen are also called  先生.)

Answers · 2

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