August 8, 2006
It’s a Chinese thing
It all started as an innocent suggestion. For weeks straight
Marcus, Gary and I have been visiting cyber café for hours till wee hours of
morning in computer games such as DotA. This not only drained us physically,
but also financially. Since none of us (except me) don’t have a proper job to finance
our weekend activity, Marcus asked for an alternative activity over this costly
gaming sessions. So, ideas started pouring in, from Kareem, to snooker to poker
and then finally decided on mahjong, an ancient Chinese game.
None of us know how to play this game. In fact we have no
intentions to gamble at all, just learn something new while we still have the
extra time to do so. After a week of research in the internet on the gaming
rules and basics (which later I found out is wrong), we had a demo session on a
makeshift mahjong table which is actually a Kareem board with cardboard as
dampening material. It was a laughable experience the four of us (including my
bro) learning as we go. And yes, we played it wrong.
It wasn’t until a week after our first taste of tiles, that
my sister and her boyfriend, both seasoned mahjong players decided to give us,
noobs a taste of the real thing. I got to admit that I was lost throughout the
whole game. I wasn’t even sure what I was supposed to do as I had to relearn
everything. Plus not to forget that I can’t even read Chinese to begin with.
Later in the third game cum tutorial only did I manage to get the hang of it.
And on the plus side, not only did I manage to learn to speak a few more
Chinese words but also learn to read them. And to my surprise, it was actually
a very simple game of chance amongst four players.
Only two weeks since I started with a mahjong manual in
English in one hand and three new players looking lost which spent more time
laughing at our mistakes than actually playing it, we got better and improved
allot (which I can shamelessly say master the game).
Our new past time
On the hind note, this game actually brought the family
together on a Sunday. Previously where everyone else is distracted to their own
little world shopping, playing pc games or watching TV, And it’s mahjong that
brings everyone together in a game of tiles. Picture tells it all.
