Crazy Mahjong Lingo...

[hirohurl]

I was just describing our Hiroshima \"den-den\" (bam bam) scoring method and was thinking about how mahjong can generate some crazy phrases and terminology.

Here are some of the things we find ourselves saying:

\"Three is one, four is two, five is four.\" (1 fan + den den = 3; 3 = 1,000 points, abbreviated to \"one\" etc...)

\"What\'s my wind?\" :ohmy:

\"My hand lacks a head.\" :huh:

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Then there are the phrases that you coin or borrow from elsewhere, and which stick...

I\'ve got a hand like a foot

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Of course, the Japanese have a few sayings or expressions of their own.

MINI JAPANESE MJ LANGUAGE TEST :P

1. What do you say when you draw and discard a 5-bam right after discarding a 4-bam, 5-bam or 6-bam?

2. What do you say when someone accidentally reveals a tile?

3. What do you call the 7-bam?

Okay, no. 3 is rude, but not the rudest...

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Do you have any ripe, colourful or pithy phrases that you like to use during an mj session?

[Tom Sloper]

2. \"Gomen nasai.\"

[suihi]

1. uso da! (uu sou = 5 of bamboo :laugh:)

Still thinking for #2.

3. Only thing I can think of is chii sou -> chee soh = Cantonese for bathroom/washroom.

[hirohurl]

Hi Tom,

You are too polite, apologizing for somebody else\'s clumsiness!

Hi Suihi,

Correct! Uso = 5-bam & \"a lie\" as in \"I don\'t believe it.\"

Cheesoh = bathroom - I think I\'ll always remember that now! But no, #3 is not based on word play.

[Barticle]

Do you have any ripe, colourful or pithy phrases that you like to use during an mj session?

I have plenty - in fact I´d been meaning to start a thread like this and have a list ready. B)

Here´s a few for starters...

Cake - nickname for the 1 Dots tile.

[from: Jelte Rep´s book which explains the Dutch rule that lets you complete a 1 Bams tanki wait with a 1 Dots - "bird eats cake"]

Rowned - when you get hit with either one big ron, double ron or several small rons (see below)

[from: ronned + "owned"]

Ronsai - when you get hit by a ron but it turns out to only be a small one like yakuhai or tanyao only.

[from: ron + bonsai]

Green Mist (seeing the) - when a player´s head becomes filled with wholly unrealistic hopes of yakuman every time they have more than five or six pure green tiles in their hand. (I still get this)

or more generally...

Yakumania - an obsession with making limit hands.

Would love to hear more examples of slang terms in use...

[Tang]

For number three...could it originate from Cantonese? \"Chut Tow\". I don\'t exactly know the direct translation, but it\'s something really rude if you say to someone. Apparently people get beat up in China if you say it, sometimes. Mega derogatory!

[Poochy]

Just a random stab in the dark, but the only slightly rude thing that I can think to guess for #3 would be \"chikushou\". Mild Japanese curse, and sounds vaguely similar to \"chiisou\".

[Barticle]

I found a word similar to Chiisou in my Japanese dictionary and it was very rude! (anatomical) :blink:

Here are a few more of my slang terms...

Good Fixer-Upper - a useless hand at the start of a kyoku

[from: the estate agent (realtor) term attempting to give positive spin on something of very poor quality]

Manganize - to add yaku (or fu) to a hand to make it Mangan

Landing - having made a hand with good yaku, to then complete it and win the points

[from: skating, where you perform a trick but then have to \"land\" it]

(I made a rare San Kantsu recently but failed to land it!)

Kangratulations - the sporting thing to say when another player declares a kong and the kan dora matches the set so they get four dora

Boomerang Tile - a tile that you discard only to then get the same one back on your next draw

[iandstanley]

Do you have any ripe, colourful or pithy phrases that you like to use during an mj session?

I can across a few oddities from a lad at Uni back in the eighties .... he learnt his variation based around trad chinese in the USA and had a number of odd nicknames for some of the tiles:

Cocky Olly for 1-bam
... some connotation to the bird

Bad Luck for 6-bam
... oddly enough for a couple of years playing against him using trad rules with his selection of special hands I never once saw a hand where the hand collecting 6-bam came on top. Even if they actually went mahjong, one of the opposing hands would somehow be holding pungs/kongs of their own wind/wind of the round/dragons in such quantity as to still land the 6-bam collector in second! I personally do not believe in good luck or bad luck as a concept but I wonder if just labelling the 6-bam planted an unconcious disposition into the mind of the collector.

Goulash hand Upon a draw the players swap three tiles left then right then across. From the rules I have seen, I believe this comes from (or si influenced by) the American game.

Golden Gate Oddly enough was the 8-bam. Apparently something to do with the Golden Gate Bridge of \'cisco

(His rules ... nothing particularly unusual about this selection ... though often more restrictive than some other rules I\'ve seen/played)

[hirohurl]

Time to reveal all, so to speak, though I blush to do so.

1. Uso - as Suihi said.

2. Skaato mekuri (skirt lifting)

3. Inu no chinko (mentula canis)

[fjarkenarken]

chun == red rocket at our table :X

[Barticle]

I have another one I´ve been using recently. (yes, I love a bad pun)

Throwing your wait around - to repeatedly switch your wait when you are tenpai, especially with a tanki wait

PS re: #2 - hadn´t heard that phrase (English) in a long time!

[Spdwagon]

Talking about bad puns huh?


the mispelling was on purpose.



I\'m sorry, and I do hope these won\'t need (too much) explaining, although I know these are clearly elitist puns.

[Barticle]

They certainly are! :silly:

I think I´ve allowed enough time for others to post an answer if they wish.

I only know a little Japanese but I did at least try to find an answer with a little research. I think \"sou no tori des(u)\" would mean \"he´s the bird of the Bams\" but could also be read as \"sono touri (des)\" which means \"that´s it!\"...?

The proper Japanese word for West is \"nishi\" and \"ni\" can also be a burden... :unsure:

I expect I´m totally off track so would love to know the answer.

PS One thing I am sure of is that, with so many homophones, if you like puns then Japanese is definitely the language for you! :silly:

[Spdwagon]

They certainly are! :silly:

I think I´ve allowed enough time for others to post an answer if they wish.

I only know a little Japanese but I did at least try to find an answer with a little research. I think "sou no tori des(u)" would mean "he´s the bird of the Bams" but could also be read as "sono touri (des)" which means "that´s it!"...?

That\'s right. Bad pun again. Sorry...

Also
"des" is the western bastardization of desu(jp), which came from real life where a Belgian serial killer tried to imitate Death Note. More details here or just simply google for "watashi wa kira dess" (all romaji).

The proper Japanese word for West is "nishi" and "ni" can also be a burden... :unsure:

I expect I´m totally off track so would love to know the answer.

You are a little off, yes.

-When Potemayo(previously posted image) aired, there was only one fansubbed anime awaiable for english speaking people, Akagi(do correct me if I\'m wrong). In it they called the West tile Xia (shaa).

-Iirc Potemayo couldn\'t talk and could only say simple words.
The pic I shopped is from a scene where she shouts Shaaa, and it was constantly reposted on a certain imageboard where I hail from.

I just simply combined these two in one image.

Long story short:
Here is a Youtube video:

Spoiler: show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bDOs0I11hs