“Mahjong” names a family of games. Green Tile's Hong Kong play, American mah jongg and Japanese riichi share recognizable objects while asking players to learn different rules. If you have played at home, name that version when you ask about a class. If you have only played a tile-matching puzzle on a screen, say that too. It gives the teacher a more useful starting point than “a little experience.”
The Strong National Museum of Play's historical account places the development of mahjong's tiles in nineteenth-century China and connects the game with earlier draw-and-discard card games. Its later American story includes Chinese and Jewish playing communities. The National Mah Jongg League says it was founded in New York in 1937 to standardize hands and rules; it supplies a new official hands-and-rules card each year. That annual card belongs to the American game, and should not be assumed to govern a Hong Kong table.
For a first Hong Kong lesson, start by recognizing the three numbered suits: dots, bamboo and characters. Winds and dragons are separate honor tiles. Green Tile's illustrated teaching material shows the familiar basic objective of four groups and a pair. A group can be matching tiles or a run in one suit; two matching tiles make the pair. Special hands and scoring conditions add further rules, so recognizing that shape is a beginning, rather than a complete test for a legal win.
There are names worth learning as you use them. A pung is three matching tiles. A chow is three consecutive numbers in the same suit, such as four, five and six of bamboo. A kong is four matching tiles and brings additional handling rules. The club's reference distinguishes claiming a pung from any player's discard and claiming a chow from the player before you. Ask the teacher to show that distinction in a live turn; watching the tile move is clearer than memorizing the word alone.
Green Tile also distinguishes basic “chicken hand” play from points instruction. Its September 14 Intro to Points was aimed at people already comfortable with chicken hands, including instruction on a three-point minimum and more advanced combinations. That is a record of a past course, not the rules of every social. Before a new game starts, establish whether points are counted, which minimum applies and which reference the table is using. Familiar tiles can otherwise conceal unfamiliar expectations.
