Mahjong Lessons in Rochester, Minnesota

Come sit by me, dear.

If you have been standing at the edge of this game — watching a table of women laugh at something you did not catch, wondering whether it is too late to learn, or playing already and quietly baffled by that card — then you have found the right page. I teach American mah jongg here in Rochester, Minnesota, and I have been doing it for forty years.

I write as Dottie, and I live right here in town. Lessons in Rochester are taught by Karen Weathersbee, who trained under me, teaches my curricula, and is one of the few instructors I have qualified to train other teachers. When you book with Karen, you are getting my method with a warmer chair at the head of the table.

Where I teach

Lessons are held in and around Rochester, Minnesota — in homes, community rooms, and wherever four women can put a card table down. We regularly travel to players in Byron, Stewartville, Kasson, Chatfield, Eyota, Dover, Pine Island, Oronoco, Zumbrota, Plainview, Elgin and Mantorville, and across Olmsted, Dodge, Fillmore, Wabasha and Goodhue counties. Owatonna, Austin, Albert Lea, Faribault, Northfield, Red Wing and Winona are all comfortably within reach.

And if you are farther away than that — anywhere in Minnesota or Wisconsin, or anywhere at all — we teach by video too, and it works better than you would expect.

Start where you are. There is no wrong rung.

This is not a queue, dear. A woman who has played since the Carter administration and a woman who has never held a tile both belong at my table. They start in different places, that is all. Find the sentence below that sounds like your Tuesday.

“I have never touched a tile.”

MAHJ 101 — the beginner course. We begin with your thirteen tiles and five headline counts, not with a rulebook. You will read a hand the first afternoon. Then the shapes, one family at a time, each with a phrase that sticks a dozen lines to your memory at once. By the end you can sit down at any table in town, follow the play, and call your own mahjong — and when you do, we will applaud loudly enough to alarm the neighbors.

Typically four to six sessions. $50 an hour privately, or $40 an hour each in a small group.

“I play, but the card still baffles me.”

MAHJ 201 — the intermediate course. This is where most players are stuck, and it is not your fault. Somebody read you the card line by line and called that a lesson. Fifty-five lines sounds like an examination; eight familiar shapes wearing different numbers sounds like a neighborhood. We stroll it together, street by street, until you know which houses welcome your tiles. We cover the Charleston as a conversation rather than a shuffle, joker discipline, and how to hold two hands open without committing to either too early.

Typically six sessions. $75 an hour, privately.

“I hold my own. I want to get sharp.”

MAHJ 301 — the expert course, and single-topic sessions. Here you stop playing your own rack and start reading the table. The discard pond as a newspaper. The exposure decoder — what two exposed pungs actually tell you about the eleven tiles you cannot see. Natural load: which lines your tiles are already closest to before you have decided anything. Pivot maps, so a dying hand knows where its exits are. And defense, which is good manners with teeth.

Most players plateau here for years, dear, and it is a comfortable plateau — but if you have ever put down a tile and known, one half-second too late, exactly what you had just handed the woman across from you, this is the course that ends that feeling.

Available as a full course or as single sessions on defensive play, offensive play, or Charleston strategy. $100 an hour, privately.

“I'm playing in a tournament.”

A timed hand changes what a sensible risk looks like, and scoring by hand value changes which hands are worth chasing in the first place. We drill both. Come before your first tournament, not after it.

“There's no game near me.”

Then you may be three friends away from being a founder. We will teach your four, and the League Builder Kit walks you the rest of the way — standings, playoffs, the banquet, the lot. Registering your league with us is free, forever.

“I want to teach this.”

Then come around to my side of the table. Karen is a Teacher's Teacher, which means she offers the course leading to Dottie's Mahj Instructor status, in person here in Rochester or at a distance. Everything you would need to teach from is already built: three finished curricula, forty-six prepared class hours, every drill and every deck. See the instructor program.

Private lessons, small groups, and your own table

• Private lessons. Just you, at your pace, with nobody to feel hurried by.
• Small groups of two to four. My favorite way to teach, and the best value. Learning beside other learners is genuinely faster — you see four hands develop instead of one.
• Bring your own foursome. Already have a group that has been muddling through? We will come to your table and sort out whatever has been quietly going wrong.
• Distance lessons. By video, anywhere in Minnesota, Wisconsin or beyond.

What you need to bring

Nothing at all for the first lesson. We supply tiles, racks and everything else. You will want your own current-year National Mah Jongg League card eventually — we never photocopy, dear; the League that makes the card earns its fifteen dollars every year — and we will tell you exactly how to order one.

What lessons cost

Plain numbers, dear, because a woman who cannot find a price assumes it is more than she wants to pay. Every rate below is per hour. Buy ten hours at once and take ten percent off — paid up front, and those hours do not expire.

In-person lessons are taught within twenty miles of Rochester, Minnesota. Farther afield, or if you would rather, we teach by video over Google Meet.

How booking works

You tell me what you are after on a short form — your town, your level, what you would like to learn, and when you are free. Then I pair you with the instructor who suits it, and she writes to you directly to settle the details. Payment is collected once your lesson plan is finalized, not before. Nobody pays for an arrangement that has not been agreed.

Guided Play, in your home

For a table that already knows the mechanics and would like someone at their elbow while they play. Your questions get answered in the moment they arise — mid-hand, mid-Charleston, mid-argument — which is when an answer actually sticks. Nobody waits until the end to find out what she should have done. You will leave the afternoon playing with more confidence than you brought to it.

Thirty dollars per person, per hour. Four players minimum for the full experience — that is a real table, with a real Charleston and a real discard pond to read — and eight players maximum.

A word for beginners. Guided Play is not a first lesson, dear. Everyone at the table needs to know the mechanics already: complete a MAHJ 101 course with an instructor first. Having bought, read and actually used the Advanced Beginner Playbook beforehand will help you get the most from the time — the questions you bring will be better ones, and I can answer them properly instead of teaching the basics over.

We bring tiles, table mat, racks, dice and advice. You provide the room, tables and chairs enough for everyone playing, and a current-year National Mah Jongg League card for each participant — we never photocopy, dear. Coasters, please, for any beverages; the mat and the tiles have to last.

Book a lesson

Karen Weathersbee · Dottie's Mahj Instructor · Teacher's Teacher · Rochester, Minnesota

Email: KJWMahj@gmail.com
Telephone: 507-910-8852

Leave a message with your name, your town, and what you would like to learn, and Karen will call you back. Questions are never silly at this table.

Questions people ask before they book

Am I too old to learn mah jongg?

No, dear. I have taught women in their nineties and I have taught them well. This game rewards patience and pattern sense, both of which tend to improve with a life lived.

How long until I can actually play?

You will play, badly and happily, in your first lesson. You will hold your own at a friendly table after four or five. Reading the table well takes a year or so, and honestly, that part never quite finishes.

Do I need to buy a set first?

No. Wait until you know you love it. We will lend you tiles until then, and you can print a practice set at home in the meantime.

What is the difference between American mah jongg and the other kinds?

American mah jongg uses jokers and an annual card of legal hands published by the National Mah Jongg League, and the hands change every spring. Chinese and Japanese mah jongg use different rules and no card. What we teach is the American game — the one played at nearly every table in Minnesota.

I already play. Is a lesson going to be a waste of my time?

That depends entirely on whether anybody ever taught you why the card is built the way it is. Most players were taught what, never why, and it shows the moment a hand goes sideways. An afternoon on defense or the Charleston tends to be the best money an experienced player spends on this game.

Do you teach men?

Of course. I write as though I am talking to the women who fill most of my tables because I usually am, but every chair at my table is open, and always has been.

What if I cannot memorize things?

Then you are in excellent company, and you have found the right teacher. I do not teach memorization. I teach recognition — which is a different faculty entirely, and a far more reliable one.

Not looking for a lesson — just looking for a game?

Write to me at DottiesMahj@gmail.com and tell me your town. I keep track of the registered leagues and I will point you at whatever is nearest. Every one of them keeps a teaching table warm for beginners.