Mah Jongg is Hard at First

I’ve recently had a lot of students who came to me for Mah Jongg lessons, but they had initially learned from someone else. The someone else might have been a “teacher” or just a friend who said, “sit by me and I will teach you.” As I have been teaching them they tell me things like, “I never was taught this,” or “how could this have been left out when I learned the first time.”

Here is what I have to say about learning mah Jongg. Just because you don’t remember being taught something does not mean your “teacher” did not mention it. Learning mah Jongg is hard. There is a lot to take in. You might have been told something and at that moment you just could not handle remembering it.

I have learned that I have to mention many things over and over and in different ways before I am confident that a student might remember it. Part of being a real mah Jongg teacher is having a very precise use of language so that things are not ambiguous.

Learning mah Jongg is as much about the rules as it is about the exceptions to those rules. I find it is best to explain a rule and immediately talk about an exception if one exists. You can’t really teach someone how to play by letting them sit beside you and watch what you are doing because then the exceptions get missed. People construe rules from a situation that might not be true.

Building a foundation of understanding how to read the card and make hands is the best investment you can make. Just learning the rules will not make you a great player. Learning how to think about hands and how to make them is what makes someone an accomplished player.

And it all takes practice. You learn much more from your mistakes as long as you understand why they were mistakes. Just keep at it.