Comments on Reach Mahjong Columns: In Garthe's Hands #14

In Finland, when we teach people to play riichi ma...

2007-12-22T01:22:00.000-08:00

In Finland, when we teach people to play riichi mahjong, we might use some Finnish names for the terms. But we also have to introduce the Japanese terms to them, because al l the foreigners are talking about mahjong with those terms. Actually, we try to make people familiar with the Japanese terms as soon as possible.

Now you have invented some new English terms, and we are wondering if

Thanks to author.

2007-10-31T12:08:00.000-07:00

Thanks to author.

ivaJ43 Magnific!

2007-10-31T11:40:00.000-07:00

ivaJ43 Magnific!

Good job!

2007-10-30T06:27:00.000-07:00

Good job!

Magnific!

2007-10-30T02:36:00.000-07:00

Magnific!

actually, that's brilliant. Thank you. I'm going t...

2007-10-29T23:22:00.000-07:00

actually, that's brilliant. Thank you. I'm going to pass that on to a couple of people.

Please write anything else!

2007-10-28T07:53:00.000-07:00

Please write anything else!

Good job!

2007-10-27T13:10:00.000-07:00

Good job!

Nice Article.

2007-10-27T12:21:00.000-07:00

Nice Article.

Wonderful blog.

2007-10-26T12:45:00.000-07:00

Wonderful blog.

actually, that's brilliant. Thank you. I'm going t...

2007-10-26T12:20:00.000-07:00

actually, that's brilliant. Thank you. I'm going to pass that on to a couple of people.

k9PByc Nice Article.

2007-10-26T11:08:00.000-07:00

k9PByc Nice Article.

1OY9ol Your blog is great. Articles is interesting...

2007-10-26T02:41:00.000-07:00

1OY9ol Your blog is great. Articles is interesting!

1) 3 Bamboo - we are in the early stages of the ha...

2007-10-11T17:21:00.000-07:00

1) 3 Bamboo - we are in the early stages of the hand, assuming no one else has declared Riichi before us, we need to accumulate points.

2) 8 character - again we are in the early stages of the hand, so we need to maximize our long-term expectation (this means more yakus -> more points).

3) 4 dots - there are two seemingly close choices, 8 character and 4 dots. If we
discard

Exercises 1 and 2 are all about keeping your head ...

2007-09-13T23:48:00.000-07:00

Exercises 1 and 2 are all about keeping your head on your shoulders.
So 1-sou (then 3-sou UNLESS the next useful tile is 4-sou, then chuck 78-sou)// 9-wan then 8-wan without hesitating. I tend to neglect pinfu but these are hands where you can't neglect it at all. It's a valuable hand and a solid path to victory in all cases. Getting tanyao is less important here but a nice option of Ex1. Ex2

Yup, people are still here and reading. I'm writin...

2007-09-13T23:07:00.000-07:00

Yup, people are still here and reading. I'm writing up a post on YO to direct the terminology discussion along with an anecdote and some of my own thoughts.

Link here : here.

Problem post below.

I'm not sure how the reason for choosing the name ...

2007-08-10T09:33:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure how the reason for choosing the name "Peace" got overlooked. It was the first thing Walter posted in reply, it was noted in Benjamin's post and Jenn wrote in hers too: the Chinese characters which form the word Pinfu (which is neither a Chinese nor Japanese word) are used to make the word "Heiwa" in Japanese; "Heiwa" is translated as "Peace".

I'm not the Chinese expert so I

As for "pinfu vs. Peace Hand," I'm with Tina and W...

2007-08-05T13:53:00.000-07:00

As for "pinfu vs. Peace Hand," I'm with Tina and Walter and Benjamin.

As for Japanese terms vs. new English made-up terms, I disagree with Jenn. I take the point that new students who've not been exposed to other mahjong terms or books or variants have difficulty learning new Japanese terms. But IMO most folks interested in learning Japanese majan are Japanophiles. As such, they most

Wow, 21 comments! What a lively discussion. (May...

2007-08-05T09:58:00.000-07:00

Wow, 21 comments! What a lively discussion. (Maybe this really should get moved to the YO discussion boards...)

I agree that having English language terms is a good thing, and I think most people here do as well. Even though, like Garthe and Walter, I like using the Japanese terms personally that doesn't mean I think everyone should. In fact, I think everyone here thinks having

Sorry to wade into the terminology issue, but I th...

2007-08-05T06:11:00.000-07:00

Sorry to wade into the terminology issue, but I think it's an interesting issue that will continue to be problematic for a long time.

Teaching mahjong terms in Japanese/Chinese is certainly a problem for beginners who do not speak either Japanese (or Chinese). Yet, in the long run, should players from different sides of the language divide want to play with each other, there should be an

Hi everyone! I've been offline for the past week o...

2007-08-04T22:39:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

I've been offline for the past week or so, but it seems I missed a good discussion.

I just want to add my feelings on the terminology issue.

I've been trying to teach a lot of people from a lot of different age ranges Mahjong and I've found the English terms very useful for this.

For those who are more determined to learn Mahjong and/or

1) 3 bamboo. Leave the 2 bamboo as the pair, leavi...

2007-08-04T20:56:00.000-07:00

1) 3 bamboo. Leave the 2 bamboo as the pair, leaving you waiting on the 258 man, or 69 bamboo. Defensively, the 1 bamboo is safer to leave in your hand than the three.

2) 8 man. although this will break down the 789 run, thats going nowhere. Also, being the dora, you're going to want to get rid of that asap if you don't need it. Wait for 36 man and 25 bamboo. Whether to call reach or

Regarding the 3 example hands:1) I discard 1-bambo...

2007-08-04T12:54:00.000-07:00

Regarding the 3 example hands:

1) I discard 1-bamboo. It's fairly early; get the dora out before it becomes too dangerous. I don't need it; I'd rather aim for pinfu and maybe tanyou (simples). Keep the pair and the flexible bamboo and character tiles; get rid of bamboo 1-3. Single wait is not good. Throwing dora also may intimidate the opponents.

2) I discard 9-character

archon_wing,I agree with you on the all-sequences ...

2007-08-04T09:28:00.000-07:00

archon_wing,
I agree with you on the all-sequences problem. I feel like the Peace Hand (I actually remember seeing it called a flat hand before) can be considered flat, or harmonious because there are no base points. It is definitely more than the WSOM or CO all-sequences (all-chows) hands.

Walter,
I have to apologize, I had mentioned to dbrn that I was a little disappointed that

Garthe : Example 3: I'd like to drop the 8 of Gran...

2007-08-04T08:16:00.000-07:00

Garthe : Example 3: I'd like to drop the 8 of Grands here.

The more I look, the more I think you are right. By dropping the 4-Dot, like I suggested, the 6-8 Grands become a problem and we are missing a pair we already had.

With your solution, we'll finish either with a double terminal wait (1-4 Dots) or a three way wait (2-5-8 Bamboo). Two excellent waits, with