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While it is generally safe to use -さん when taking to someone and the use of
-先生 is appropriate for use in a school environment when talking to a teacher,
would the use of -先生 carry over outside of the school environment if encounter
the person under different circumstances?

For example, while the use of the honorifics is pretty obvious in a school
environment, suppose the teacher of one of the classes starts to learn a new
martial art where one of their students holds a higher rank within the art,
how would this affect the use of honorifics?
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2011-06-02T13:35:19.473
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honorifics names
Is the use of 先生 and similar titles context sensitive?
If you talk to a teacher, it is always appropriate to use -先生. If you are a
student and talk to a teacher, you should always use -先生, even outside the
school. If you are a teacher and talk to a fellow teacher, depending on the
relation (you are a boss or the other teacher is a boss, you are younger or
older etc.), it may be also acceptable to address the other teacher as -さん.
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2011-06-02T14:02:21.923
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The use of ~先生 is a bit wider.

Usually it's adopted for doctors, teachers and professors, but can also be
used for politicians, martial arts masters, etc. So, with anybody that has a
knowledge superior to ours, or better, with anyone who has achieved a certain
level of mastery or skills in a certain field or that are very popular; so,
also movie directors, writers and even mangaka are included.

Unlike most other suffixes, "~先生" can be used alone, without a name before it.
So you can say "和子先生" or simply "先生".

If you are addressing an older student in an academic setting, however, you
use "先輩" (=Senpai).
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2011-06-02T14:06:19.440
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My experience has been very similar to what @Tsuyoshi Ito described. In one
context, I am a student at a study group not associated with any school.
Everyone always calls the teacher/expert/organizer Takase-sensei at all times.

In my work as a teacher, it seems to be part of the local culture of each
school. At one university all teachers called all other teachers 先生 just about
all the time, even off campus regardless of rank: part-time instructors or
faculty heads were all the same. Only people who really became friends moved
away from this. Where I work now, it is universally さん. Every professor calls
every other "san". The safest course is to go with 先生 and you can always go to
さん later if you notice that everyone else does.
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2011-06-08T05:58:07.110
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I don't think the earlier three answers are completely correct.

Japanese adopts the relative honorification system, meaning that whether to
honorify a particular person depends on the existence of a third person.
Suppose A is B's teacher. Within a conversation between A and B, it is
appropriate for B to use `先生` to refer to A, irrespective of the situation.
However, suppose A and B are doing a venture business together, perhaps
selling products that came out as result of study. Suppose B picks a phone
from a customer C. In this situation, B cannot use `先生` to refer to A.
Otherwise, it would be considered rude of B to C. Here, A and B are one group
as opposed to C, and hence, B has to use the humble form to refer to A, just
as B would do when referring to him/herself.

I heard, although am not completely sure, that this is where the Korean
honorification system differs from the Japanese honorification system.
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2011-07-05T20:08:02.627
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