Teach Your First Class, Complete Kit to Run Your First American Mahjong Beginner Class

Somebody at your table said you should teach this. And you said something like, oh, I'm not really a teacher, I just play.

Here's the thing about teaching your first class. The hard part isn't knowing mahjong. You already know enough. The hard part is starting. So this is a start: one complete beginner class, two and a half to three hours, played through to a real finished game. What to say, when to say it, how to tell it's working, and what to hand them on the way out.

Run it once as written. Then keep what works, change what doesn't, and make it yours.

$89. Instant digital download. Written for the 2026 NMJL card.

What you get

• The guide, 46 pages. Ten teaching segments, minute by minute, each with the objective, the key insight, the exact words to say, how to check it landed, what usually goes wrong, and what to cut when you're running long. Plus what to charge, how to collect it cleanly, the follow-up email, and how to book the second class before anybody stands up.
• The Map, 2 pages. The whole class on one page, with the hard stops marked and a cut printed for every segment. Page two is the mid-class crib: calling, the joker exchange, the wall game, and the three sentences.
• The Teacher Flip Pack, 14 pages. Your visual in the room. The same pages your students take home, with your cues printed on every one, so mid-class you point at a picture instead of re-explaining.
• The Student Pack, 14 pages. One page per idea, in class order. Print one per student, hand them out in the last five minutes, and everything from the night has somewhere to live.
• The Lines to Start With, 4 pages. The beginner lines on the 2026 card, shown in real tiles, plus the test for picking them yourself in any card year. Ends with the Table Tracker, so nothing lives in your head.
• Bonus: the slide deck, 16 slides. The whole class for teaching on a screen or over Zoom, with speaker notes on every slide. Included as an editable PowerPoint.

What's actually in the class

A ninety-second history that answers "this looks impossible." Every tile named and touched, one find-me drill at a time. One card line shown both ways, so the colors stop looking like a code. The wall, a real deal, and the First Charleston, called pass by pass. Then every player gets one assigned line and a protected fifty minutes of real play, all the way to a real ending: a mahjong checked against the card, or a wall game named for what it is. You coach from outside the table, and the plan tells you exactly when to make the first called tile and the first joker exchange happen while everybody watches.

It ends with a specific compliment for each person, the next date on the calendar, and the money already collected. In that order.

You'll love this if

• People keep asking you to teach them and you haven't said yes yet.
• You can play, but you have no idea how you'd structure two and a half hours.
• You want a plan to follow, not a set of frameworks to choose between.
• You have no idea what to charge, and "it depends" has never helped.
• You want to collect the money cleanly from the very first class.

It's probably not for you if

• You're still learning the game yourself. Start with the Foundations Edit instead.
• You already teach regularly and want multi-week curriculum, shorter and longer formats, and ongoing support. That's The Teacher Edit, and it's the thing you want after your first class, not before it.

From Lara

What stopped me wasn't a lack of information. It was having plenty of information and no idea where to begin. That's the part I wanted to hand you. This isn't the only way to teach a first class, and it isn't something you have to do this way every time. It's a place to start, and after that it's yours.

Digital download, delivered by email right after checkout. Digital products are final sale, but if something isn't right, email me at support@larasmahjongedit.com. I read every message and I'll make it right.

Pick a date. You've got the whole class in your hands.