Learning Mah Jongg

Our branch of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute offers a series of classes, some at a university level, as my class on vaccinations taught by a retired university biology professor, some at the pitch the political hardball level, and some better classified as recreation.  I try to nurture a new exposure, with the likely false hope that it will become an interest.  Woodcarving did not.  This semester, it's Mah Jongg.  I am not the only male in the class, but we are a small subset.  I guess a college version of this might be a good place to pick up girls, the matronly version is not.

To my surprise, about 30% of the class were people like me who have never played.  Being mostly 60-somethings and beyond, we watched our mothers play but never got invited to learn.  It may have skipped a generation since we are rediscovering this past-time, not as homemakers looking for an evening away from our kids but as empty nesters.  Amid my high school Facebook chums, there is a renewed interest, all pursued post-menopausally.

I bought a card, paying a dollar extra for a big print version.  I assumed there were a series of cards published by the Mah Jongg organization but it turns out all cards each season are identical.  So why not just have a library and lend the cards when they are needed?  It makes money for the association and is definitely more convenient for each player to have a card.  The appropriate hands and sequences are many and they are diverse.  Fortunately they are subdivided into themes so that with a weekly session, people can probably get familiar with their options in the first quarter and as new cards replace the old each year, the broad themes should remain even if the details of each tile sequence vary a little.  The tiles have a complexity that exceeds playing cards but of similar concept.  The rules are few, mostly protocol of who goes in which order.  A single Roberts Rules Parliamentarian in each foursome should suffice.

I played my first game, following my own card.  I got sets of four, some jokers, but not the same sets of four that my card options specified.  There are some multipurpose tiles that I do not fully understand yet.

I don't really know why this game generally attracts women, as the strategies are gender neutral.  It may be like cooking or teaching where the bulk are women but the head chefs and principals are predominantly men.  Or maybe it's a place to not have men.