The Kickstarter FAQs
FAQs
Hong Kong style mahjong? Do I have to be from Hong Kong to learn how to play?
Not at all. This style can be played by anyone from anywhere.
Do I have to be Chinese or Asian, or be able to read Chinese characters, to learn how to play mahjong?
Not with Mahjong Party. There are some apps, courses, and YouTube video that cater to those that are able to read Chinese Characters. Our course is accessible to anyone. The lessons are currently in English. The Mahjong Tile photobook, that can be purchased as an add-on, is in English with Cantonese subtitles for the tiles. We would like to eventually offer our courses and our books in Cantonese, Mandarin, French, Japanese, Spanish and in other languages that our customers request. Interested in seeing our courses in your language, send us a line and we will make efforts to make it happen.
Can I learn at my own pace?
Yes! You get lifetime access to the course so you can learn and practice at your own pace. The lessons are all online, short, and available 24/7, so you can move through them as quickly or slowly as you want.
Can I go back through the lessons I’ve completed?
Absolutely! You can go back through your lessons as many times as you want.
When do I get access to the course?
After the Kickstarter ends, we will hold everyone’s email addresses and information until the courses launch. Once you receive an email with your login information and access code, you can start learning with Mahjong Party.
You can expect the Full Course to begin by August 2022 or earlier. You can expect the Quick Start Method to begin by October 2022 or earlier.
What will the lessons look like? There are 2 types of lessons you will get...
Once you get access to your course (see release dates under your specific course - either August or October) you will get the first edition of lessons. These are a more simple type of lesson - they do not include audio for instance. It will introduce you to the lessons, provide information to get you started, and you can work through the entire course in this format. We want you to have this initial format as it is easy to understand, you can return to it as much as you want, and get a more simple to use format. In the interim, the funds that we obtain through our Kickstarter fundraiser will help us upgrade our equipment so that we can add lessons to your course lineup that are more rich in format. They will either include audio or be interactive in content, they may be video based lessons showing particular aspects of the lesson subject, or they will be more graphics based such as chart on how to make the hand.
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There will be 2 timeframes for the delivery of lessons.
The more simple lessons that form the basis of your course will be delivered to you twice a week beginning on your release date. Your course will run for either 3 months (Quick Start Method) or for 6 months (The Full Course). The majority of your course will be delivered in 2022. We designed our timeframe so that you will be able to finish your first round of courses prior to Chinese New Year in 2023 - giving you time to learn before you demonstrate your new skills!
You will then get access to more lessons as we add them in. These additional lessons will be added throughout 2023 and 2024 until we get to over 60 lessons in the Quick Start Method and over 100 lessons in The Full Course. If we reach our numbers sooner, then you will have access to your new lessons sooner.
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Why are the lessons released over a period of months? Why not give us access to all the lessons right away?
Mahjong is a complex game. It requires a good amount of knowledge, memory, and recall. It is important to do each lesson as it comes up and give yourself time to absorb the material. If all the lessons were available right away, some of the basic content might be skipped over to get to what might seem more important or relevant. Over decades of teaching mahjong, we found that when people did not make progress it was because the very basic content at the beginning was not memorized or recalled as the student was focusing too much on trying to make hands or do advanced strategy. We want to help you succeed, make progress, see results, and start to win at mahjong. We space our lessons to achieve this.
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Will I only be able to play Hong Kong Style Mahjong?
While we guide you through Hong Kong-style Mahjong, the skills you learn enable you to play any style of Mahjong with speed and confidence. You will notice in the beginning of each lesson that we specify what style that lesson pertains to. It will either say:
1) This lesson builds skills for any style of mahjong – you can apply these skills to any style of mahjong
2) This lesson is based on the Hong Kong style of mahjong – you can still learn these skills, when you play a different style of mahjong you just transfer your knowledge and change some elements to apply to whatever style you are playing
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How often will updates be communicated?
Regardless of how many emails or questions we get throughout the project, we will communicate our updates once a month. If there is a lot to update on, we will post more frequently. We may not respond to every single email that comes in if there are a lot of emails. Instead, we will summarize the questions into one update so that we can answer several emails at once with our update. Due to us wanting to prioritize the completion of the courses and offerings, we want to focus on getting our lessons out as opposed to answering emails individually especially if there are several emails that ask similar questions. We sincerely feel, and hope you understand, that this will serve you best as it will focus on our time on getting our deadlines met.
What will the funds be used for?
We would like to acknowledge the support and funds received from Community Futures, the IDEA Program, and the training from the Systems Business Coach aimed at getting this project underway.
The funds received from our Kickstarter backers will go towards our course platform, operating costs, and technical software and equipment, and staffing required to bring this project and business to life. Feel free to check out our draft page of the learning platform. Please note that it is a draft version, the majority of the design will remain but there are still changes we are making and courses we are adding. It is not the final product but can be viewed here:
