Ok, so I'm still trying to get used to the に particle and how it has many
functions that make it easy for it to appear many times in a sentence and thus
get confusing...

But I am specifically looking at its function in these two sentences:
１・お土産にチョコレートをもらった。 ２・先生に友達を紹介した。

Doesn't that get confusing?

Like, if the first example can be interpreted as "I received chocolate as an
omiyage" doesn't that mean the second example can be interpreted as "I
introduced my friend as a teacher (As in you said "This is my friend who is a
teacher")"

How do you reconcile this? If I wanted to say that I introduced my friend AS a
teacher how do you do this?
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grammar
に particle and its conflicting functions
Yeah, に can have that "as" meaning like in sentence one there. In the second,
however, it does not have that meaning. It might be a little confusing, but
only if you try to attach one meaning to each particle. に has many different
uses. In fact, it has at least [15 distinct
definitions](http://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%81%AB?dic=daijirin&oid=DJR_ni_-160).
Here you're dealing with definitions 8 and 3 respectively (I'm pretty sure,
anyway).

The fact that there are many ways to use に may seem confusing, but generally
context and a more thorough familiarity with sentence patterns and how it is
usually used will be more than enough to know the correct interpretation. Just
treat it like any other homophone.

If you really want to break に down to its purest _essence_ and not just take
the many meanings for granted, there are some general categories you can break
it into that some of the definitions could be grouped into.

For example you have the に of location, which describes where something is.
For example, 本は机の上にある. You have the に of literal or perhaps metaphorical
direction, a category in which I would include sentences like スーパーに行った and
友達にプレゼントを上げた. You have a に that represents the agent in passive constructions,
like in 男に殴られた. You have the に that determines something's role, what it _is_
and the purpose it serves, as in your おみやげにチョコレートをもらった. You have the に that
marks the way something is done, as in with adverbs, like 嬉しそうにケーキを食べた. There
are probably more, but I think this illustrates the point. These are all
_distinct_ and have obvious applications and are easily understood within
their respective contexts.

So does it get confusing? Actually, it doesn't really. Not usually, anyway. Of
course you can always find examples of ambiguous sentences, but that doesn't
mean communication in general is difficult, even in longer sentences. You'll
have enough hints based on the words in the immediate vicinity of the に to
understand what's going on.

Look, for example, at your sentences. You wonder if 先生に友達を紹介した could be
interpreted in such a way that the に in this sentence is saying what your
friend is, i.e. a teacher, like in the omiyage sentence. It is true that に
used like this can mean the same thing as として, in which case it would be as
you thought. But when used _with people_ it does not have this meaning. As
such it is unambiguous. I cannot think of a context in which someone could
possibly interpret it the other way (any native speakers can chime in here if
they would like). 先生に友達を紹介した deals with humans, so its meaning is set.

As for the alternative ways to say it, I'm a little unsure at the moment with
regard to the exact nuance that you're trying to convey in English, but here
are some ways you can say it in Japanese.

You could say 先生である友達を紹介した. The nuance of this one is that you introduced (to
someone) your friend, and incidentally that friend also is a teacher. The
emphasis however is that you introduced your friend.

Next, you could just say 先生の友達を紹介した, which has a similar meaning to the above.

Another way that I think gets more to the heart of what you want is to turn
the に overtly into a として and say 先生として友達を紹介した. In this case, you would be
saying "I introduced my friend _as_ a teacher" in the way I think you mean,
where the person is your friend, but in this situation you emphasize the fact
that he is a teacher. You can switch it around as well to say 友達として先生を紹介した.
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