It's seNpai not seMpai
If you want to say what is wrong or right, the only correct way to write it is "先輩" as romanization cannot accurately tell you the pronunciation without IPA phonetics, and even then we don't have pitch-accent so it's all a moot point. "Sempai" isn't the romanization of 先輩, but it is often used as "ん" makes a sound closer to m when preceding a bilabial ("p" or "b" like camp, lamb) sound. I could go into further detail about the phonology of Japanese, but the point is, it's silly to nit-pick the n/m when phonetically neither of them are "correct". Just let it be, people are trying their best to pronounce things correctly and they're on the right track! Don't discourage them. (⌒▽⌒)
The word Senpai has been originated from the old Japanese language while the word Sempai has been originated from the English language users who have integrated it.
The difference between the words Senpai and Sempai becomes an issue because there is no translation for the alphabet ‘m’ in Japanese.
Senpai is mostly used by people who speak the Japanese language or have some idea about it while the primary audience who use the word Sempai are the individuals who use the internet.
Senpai is a Japanese language word while Sempai is an urban language word. That's all I want to say .
Fair enough. Though, I see people of varying levels of knowledge of Japanese use either spelling interchangeably. It seems just like much of the English language, especially with loan words, the rules are not hard and fast, and really don't matter all that much when communicating this way. If we wanted to be the most accurate and academic about it, we would use 先輩 and the IPA pronunciation. Fortunately this is a manga forum and people will not be bothered about an n/m. Especially since it's such a small "error" compared to the usual. (⌒▽⌒)
So good to learn more about this word "senpai" I speak spanish and in spanish before "b" and "p" you always have to write "m", my mother would hit or yell at me if I didn't do things right when she was teaching me, she is very strict and easily gets angry, so now is hard for me to write words in other languages that don't follow that rule ( ̄∇ ̄")
So is good to know that even if I make a mistake I would not be so wrong
ヾ(❀╹◡╹)ノ~
┗( T﹏T )┛