Does Mahjong Bring Out The Worst In Us.. ?

Mahjong is a game I picked up since I was a child at home. My parents played it religiously every weekend. Since I was the eldest child at home, I ran the 'water and tea' department. Which is the job of making sure everyone of my aunties and uncles' coffee or tea cups were kept to a reasonably full level. Therefore, I constantly had to be around the Mahjong table. We have a total of five Mahjong tables at home. And about seven sets of Mahjong. My grandma even gave me one of those sets of Mahjong when she came over the last time to visit me from Perth. (Is she trying to get me adddicted to Mahjong ??)

Mahjong is a game which I must agree brings out the worst (or the best) in us.

From a young age, I saw even my sweetest aunty lose her temper when another uncle had gamed on her card. And I had often seen my other aunty throw a Mahjong tile irritably at the table when it wasn't the tile she had hoped for (she even threw it at my uncle a few times). My mum and daddy can also never play on the same table. The result would be just like world war 3 in the household.

My daddy is a man of few words. But put him on a Mahjong table and even he starts to evolve take on the characteristics of other players. He begins to speak alot louder (possibly to keep above the noise made by the tiles) and even starts to joke around with the other players.

Or maybe we are all just sore losers. And Mahjong just brings it all out. There is no sportsmanship in this game.

Last night we decided to play a game of Mahjong.. and the result ?

The most swear words I had heard in a three hour interval. Followed by one of the guys leaving (at the end of the game) and later calling me to tell me that my other two friends were both sore losers.

I told him he was too.