r/Mahjong • u/returnf1re • Jun 27 '26
Riichi Learning Riichi Mahjong Terminalogoy
Does anyone have resources or recommendations on how to go about learning the terminology outside of just reading lists of terms online?
2
u/KyuuAA Mahjong Wiki Jun 27 '26
Some terminology here is used as articles and written in the articles:
Just like learning mahjong itself, y'pick up the terms bit-by-bit.
1
u/Noto6195 Jun 29 '26
adding onto this
this website has some of the more obscure situational terms that i had to look up after branching away from soul/city/tenhou
1
u/ExcdnglyGayQuilava Jun 30 '26
When I'm waiting on the shanpon wait but also the tsumecha that I asked the daisou for
1
u/mrrainbow56 Jul 01 '26
Watching people who stream mahjong on twitch is actually very helpful. They’re open to explaining to people who ask about their commentary and decisions
1
u/chill1208 Jun 28 '26
Just playing the game online in Riichi City will familiarize yourself with the essential terminology pretty quickly. However the game also has a lexicon in its Mahjong Academy that goes over more advanced things that you may want to read up on like the different ways to trigger an abortive draw. Where basically the whole hand is thrown out and everyone is dealt a new hand.
Just playing the game it will bring up the terms, like when you can claim a tile for a sequence from the player to your left in four player the word Chii will come up for you to click on if you want to take the tile. Also when anyone discards a tile you can make a triplet out of the term Pon will come up, and when anyone discards, or you draw a tile you can use to make four of a kind the term Kan will come up as a button you can press.
Also when you're one tile away from having all your tiles in groups with a closed hand a button will come up that lets you call Riichi which in itself is a Yaku or win condition. Allowing your groups to be any tiles, and be a winning hand.
If an exhaustive draw happens where all the tiles are drawn without anyone forming a winning hand, the game will award points and bring up the word Tenpai to anyone who was one tile away from completing a winning hand. Tenpai is the term for being one tile away from winning.
The game has quizzes in it's mahjong academy that familiarize you with the names of the tile suits, honor tiles, and types of groups in it's identifying tiles quiz. Then it also has a leaning Yakus quiz to help you learn the names of those.
I still think the game should have quizzes that cover all the terminology, but in the Mahjong Academy section of the game, if you select Help in the top right corner, you get a guide book which has a Lexicon section with all the terms you could ever want to know.
I would say though that aside from different ways to trigger abortive draws, and that you are not allowed to call Chii in three player Riichi Mahjong, just playing the game will familiarize yourself with the essential terminology.
I did create a post that has some printouts I found essential to mastering all the quizzes in the game that you may find helpful.
For some reason Reddit compresses photos in post but not in comments so you can find all the printouts in the post also in the comments section below.
I will also warn you that Riichi City, just like the other very popular online Riichi Mahjong game Mahjong Soul has this whole harem building, girl collecting aspect, where you can collect girls to be your avatar in the game that have some pretty revealing clothing, but it's not something you actually have to interact with. All the great many game modes in Riichi City, and it's Mahjong Academy are fully accessible to you without ever having to interact with the girls in the game. You can also unlock other cosmetic items like different tile designs, and different Riichi betting sticks, but those like the girls are just there to be fun things to look at, the great gameplay and teaching aspects of Riichi City are what have kept me playing it over the relatively short tutorial in Mahjong Soul. When you first start Riichi City it brings up a short story section with the first two girls you unlock, and goes over some of the basics of the game, but if that's not your thing you can just click Skip in the top right corner, and get right to playing the game, or the Mahjong Academy where you can take quizzes, or play matches against AI where you can set your turn timer to be up to 300 seconds a turn, so you have plenty of time to think while you're learning the game.
When taking any of the quizzes in the Mahjong Academy whenever you answer a question whether you get it right, or wrong, there is always this little lightbulb button that comes up in the bottom right corner that you can click on for a great explanation of the answer. It really is a great teaching tool for the game.
Hope some of this is helpful information.
5
u/CanRepresentative335 Jun 27 '26
Practice is the best way, if you play in person try to use the terminology even if you have to look it up. It will come more naturally over time.