Finding Friends
Follow up to my last column relating the emotional trauma of being without a mahjong club…
As some of your know, I now own my own house and am finally starting to put down some roots after many years of travelling. This should be perfect for me to finally get a mahjong club organized and some regular face-to-face playtime in…
I’d like to point out but there are so many obstacles!
1) Time – It is hellish to find a time when four of my friends are free and/or have babysitters. My job is notoriously fickle too and it’s sod’s law that if I finally find a time that suits all, I’ll suddenly get that job which will mean I can eat more than toast and butter for the next month.
2) Patience – Most people want to pay casually. Although I like to assert that mahjong is a relatively simple game (no more difficult to poker for example) it does still require an initial investment of time and concentration. People just don’t seem to be able to do this with all the demands of modern life.
3) Unfamiliarity – I know a lot of people who read this site entered mahjong from an interest in East Asian cultures (especially anime or manga) but in the Westcountry I’m very much in the minority for having lived abroad. It’s very difficult to convince people that mahjong is just a game like any other despite its origins from being somewhere very foreign. I think me and my interests are viewed as something of a curiosity most of the time…
4) Space – UK homes aren’t known for their size! I can barely fit in the few items of furniture I do own, let alone another square table for mahjong use. If I do organize something, it inevitably ends up with someone perched on a box. It doesn’t really lend itself to a comfortable play time.
I know that these obstacles aren’t the most horrific in the world but after several attempts you start to lose the will to expend more effort. I guess the easiest way would be to cuckoo off another club like the chess club (which I notice seems to have none of the above problems. I guess chess has that respectability you just can’t argue with) and build up a small fan base before kicking off alone.
I’ve also considered combining mahjong with language lessons.
I guess the problem is how to get people excited about mahjong. We really need it to feature prominantly in a popular TV show or film and I’ll have people banging on the door for me to teach them. 🙂
Until then… I’ll continue to be the curiosity amongst a sea of chess players…
