A group of Rip ’N’ Sew members once thought Mahjongg was a matching game played on a computer. They thought the computer game gave them an advantage when learning the Chinese game.

Now they know better and can play a real game of Mahjongg. All it took was a month of weekly lessons plus a lot of study by the students.

Students learned to recognize each of the 144 tiles, build a hand (similar to building a gin rummy or poker hand), read a Mahjongg card, memorize rules and absorb a lot more information.

Like many Sun City West clubs, Rip ’N’ Sew has monitored hours in the summer. When the club’s space is not devoted to sewing, members sometimes pursue other interests there. This summer, activities have included free lessons for Mahjongg and the card game hand and foot. These alternative activities let members socialize with each other and get more members involved in the club.

Rip ’N’ Sew member Sue Truax volunteered to teach Mahjongg along with her husband, Glen, and fellow club member Dianne Repsholdt.

A club member who did not take the Mahjongg lessons learned a new phrase — “rack it” — by listening to class lessons. She knew the phrase was important because she said she heard it about 50 times.

“Rack it” means to put a tile drawn on a rack as quickly as possible. Dawdling when racking a tile can cost that tile, as one unhappy student learned.