Asking for Clarification

Tonight I was teaching a beyond beginner class. One of the tables was a group of friends who play together every week. I taught them beginner a few months ago and they have faithfully been playing.

When I asked if anyone had any questions one of the young women brought up a scenario that had taken place last week. She wanted to exchange two tiles for two exposed jokers at the same time. Her friends told her she could only do one per turn so she listened to them and that was what she did, even though she thought her friends were wrong.

So she asked me who was right. It turns out all her friends were wrong and she was right. I said, “why didn’t you text me for the answer.” She said they played late at night and they knew I didn’t answer after 9pm.

Sometimes it is hard when you are all new players to get the right answer to an obscure technical question. But always ask an impartial expert, even if it is after the fact. The loudest or the bossiest person is not always right.

If you take note of the situation you can at least get the right answer for the next time this happens. Learning all the rules correctly takes time. It is also OK to make a mistake and learn from it. You usually learn best from a failure.

All my students know they can text me to answer questions. I would rather have you get the right answer and play correctly than have you make up your own rules because you don’t remember what I taught you the first time. You can’t learn it all in one sitting and even though I might have told you it does not mean that you learned it all.