How to use the word shomen?

[jsherwood]

If shomen translates as "front; frontage; facade; main;" how do I use the word to say "bow to the front of the class"/"Bow to the Head of the Class" or do I use another phrase?

[richvh]

I'm not sure, but you might need to use 前(mae) rather than 正面(shoumen). The most relevant hit I find in the examples for shoumen at WWWJDIC uses "no shoumen ni" to mean "facing", and the two hits I get for "front of the class" at Space ALC both use "mae ni"

[jsherwood]

We've been using two phrases at the beginning of class
sensei-ni rei
then shomen-ni rei
trying to get across to bow to the head instructor then bow to the head of the class usually a number of other black belts. Apparently I have wrong in the meanings and would like to correct that. So it now looks like it should be sensei-ne rei then mae-ni rei

[coco]

Though I am not learning the 武道 like judo/kendo/aikido ....

稽古時間に正座をする
1)正面に礼　　shomen ni rei
2)先生に礼 sensei ni rei

稽古後　正座　(黙想)
1)正面に礼 shomen ni rei
2)先生に礼 senesi ni rei
and
3)お互いに礼 otagai ni rei ( bow to each other)

http://shotokan.stanford.edu/protocol.html
This site might be your help.

*「正面に礼」は、先生に対してではなく、道場の正面の壁に向かって行われます。

[jsherwood]

Thanks

What I want to do is to remove shomen-ni rei, because we're not bowing to anything else but the head instructor and other black belts in the school. As I understand it. Shomen is the front of the room kind of where an alter may be. Even though the dictionaries list literally that this word means front it seems I can't use it to mean the front of the class/head of the class.

[Mike]

You might consider using 'Sensei ni rei' to bow to the head teacher and then 'Sempai ni rei' to the seniors that have taught.

[jsherwood]

Thanks everyone for replying. I think I will be using
sensei ni rei
and
sempai ni rei