Oh yeah, I understand the conversion from English to kata, I just thought you were translating 'ball' as 'baleh' which made no sense.

Genuinely what I meant to type. Writing kata on my phone is a pain ._.

Unrelated, but I would pronounce 'ball' in Japanese as booru (ボイル). But yeah, this situation is never going to pan out. When we talk in lessons, we talk about what we're told to talk about, and it's not as if the senseis join as at the pub every evening or eat at the next table in the tea shop. Would be a nice idea in a school environment.

She's the head of department, so she's busy. I was hyperbolising with 'perfect', but she's fluent such that mistakes have never caused a serious problem or miscommunication. AFAIK the handouts aren't reused, but I'll check.

I usually address my teachers as Robyn and Gareth, and carry that through to email, but most of the teachers in Sheffield's School of English prefer going by first names.

Well remember, we're talking about repeated interactions, not the first. Once you've established correspondence, you probably know whether it's important, preview or no. So utility isn't a very compelling argument for me here.

Well if they were a professor, wouldn't you address them such? Or do you mean professor as a job title?

I've talked to several Japanese students, and by and large their attitude has been 'Please correct me at any point'. But a sensei is a different kettle of fish. So the transparent approach is a good idea.

I was asking more specifically about second contact.

Though tangential to the question, nice points and well put. I'll keep that in mind.

I know, I always respect titles, it was only an example. Is Jeff a Dr. though?

Funny that, in asking a question about correcting written English, I made a typo and forgot a question mark.