Become a Dottie's Mahj Instructor

Here is what stops most good players from teaching: not nerve, and not knowledge. It is the fifty hours between deciding to teach and having something to teach from. I already did all of it. That is what this program is.

Teach with me

Here's what stops most good players from teaching: not nerve, and not knowledge. It's the fifty hours between deciding to teach and having something to teach from. Somebody has to decide what comes first, build the drills, write the homework, make the slides, and work out what to do when a student says she can't memorize. Most people never get past that, and the game is poorer for it.

I already did all of it. That's what this program is.

What opens up

A Dottie's Mahj Instructor doesn't walk away with a lesson plan. She walks into a room that has my whole teaching shelf in it, and she keeps her key as I add to it.

MAHJ 101, the beginner curriculum, opens the day you start the Instructor Course — so you can teach your first table while you're still learning to teach it. MAHJ 201 and MAHJ 301, the intermediate and expert courses, open when you pass the final exam.

Every course arrives finished. Each session has its objective written, its drill designed, its homework assigned, and its presentation deck built and branded — forty-six class hours of prepared material across the three. The mnemonics are tested. The lesson order is the one that works, not the one I happened to learn in. When a student tells you she can't memorize, the course has already taught you the three different things she might mean and the drill for each.

Alongside the curricula: the Instructor's Library, your listing in the instructor directory and the Class Finder so students can book you directly, the monthly instructor letter, a seat in the instructors' community when it opens, and a place in the pool I draw from when each new card's materials need reading before anyone else sees them.

You walk into your first class with a plan for every minute of it. That is the thing you're buying.

How you get there

The qualification quiz, $10 an attempt. Twenty questions on the guides. It isn't a formality — it's how I know you know the material well enough for the rest to land.

The Dottie's Mahj Instructor Course, $149. Twelve lessons on the method itself: how to teach the card without losing the room, how to diagnose a memory failure, how to run a drill, how to correct a woman in front of three other women without costing her the afternoon. MAHJ 101 opens here.

The final exam, $50 an attempt. Twenty-five questions, and 80% graduates you. Passing brings your certificate, your badge, and the password that opens MAHJ 201 and 301.

Then the subscription keeps your directory listing live, your classes in the Class Finder, and the letter arriving: $19 a month or $190 a year, cancel any time, no hard feelings ever.

Join the subscription   Take the qualification quiz — $10 per attempt

Your certificate and badge say you finished my program and teach my curricula under my name. That is what they say, and it's all they say — there's no national qualification in American mahjong for them to stand in for. What they open is the shelf.

Already teaching, or just curious?

See the current instructor directory, or write to me at DottiesMahj@gmail.com. Questions are never silly at this table.