Am I the last Chinese on earth to learn how to play mahjong?
I’ll answer that.
Why, yes, yes I am.
So it fell upon some very patient Singaporeans here in Seattle to spend an hour breaking it down for clueless Dot.
As far as I can remember, here are the rules, in no particular order: They are called tiles, not pieces. The wind direction changes every time. Animals are good. Flowers are good too. Match three of the same, or consecutive numbers. You have to say aloud what tile you’re throwing down.
As far as I can remember, here is what I remember, in no particular order: My butt fell asleep. I kept forgetting what the Chinese character for my direction looked like. “Pong!” is very fun to shout. I didn’t know the Chinese names of the different tiles, so I’d say, “Three Bamboo down”. Everyone kindly played at the slowest speed imaginable because I took forever to count the number of circles and bamboos on my tiles. I won, once.
It was a complete and utter accident.
was that your winning hand? it’s pretty good!
Actually it took more than an hour
And I think you won more than once…
hey, mahjong is supposed to keep Alzheimer’s away!
i say “pong!” to that.
Yes, my first winning hand! Did I win twice?
Actually, I don’t know how to play either – that makes 2 of us!
Hey now you’re one up on me… I only ever got as far as “washing the tiles”… I just liked the swimming motion and making all that racket. Oh and building up the fortress… repressed Playmobil syndrome I think… So, I am LIVING IN Singapore AND Chinese AND don’t know how to play mahjong. Quite tragic.