I do not use the terminology of "teacher" or "sensei" in our study group because I am not nor while I ever attempt to be a "teacher" or a "sensei". Because I am not a teacher, I have no students; I do, however, have a study group. Likewise, my instructors don't teach and our Soke doesn't teach. I simply take home the things my instructors show me and I then translate it as best I can and then we all merely come together, studying together, and figure out things together; as a whole, as a Community, and as a Family. We don't teach... we train.
We do not care about rank because as you will see after traveling and training, rank can be equivalent to, less than, or greater than the acquired skill. This is something I used to struggle with. Don't worry about it. Just train. One of my instructors jokes about starting everyone off with a blackbelt. I think this is a wonderful idea to play with because then we could all be more focused on training, experience, and having a good time with one another opposed to focus on rank. Which is more important to you?
In all seriousness, if someone shows up to class and wants a blackbelt, I will literally bring you one the next week and we can be done with it to remedy you wasting your time, my time, and most importantly, the group's time. One typically tests for their first rank after ten months. I am also a firm believer in PT (Physical Training) so there are also physical requirements.
Sometimes people tend to want to jump into weapons training too quickly. Realistically, we won't touch a tool (weapon) until you have been training 8+months. We are not larpers or cage-fighters and we are not ninja working on sneaking around or stalking in the shadows. We are, however, a shibu (study group) that get together and train hard and have fun doing so. We mess up, we do things wrong, and then we train hard on focusing on those faults and correcting them. The best part is leaving after each class knowing that you are not and will never be perfect.
-michael cody