It's nothing to me

The week is filled with language class in the morning from 8-12 and teaching praticum until 5 or 5:30 after lunch. It keeps me busy, which is good, but doesn't make for the most eventful of days, which can be good as well. So wen not much happens, I will throw in a few observations that you may or may not find interesting. Yesterday, for example, I had my introduction to Chinese mah jong. Mrs. Z is quite a devotee, and after lunch she had the restaurant bring out the game. I should say people tell me that the game is something like a national obsession, and people think nothing of playing the game for six or eight hours at a time (or longer)--and of course it is played for money. I won't go into the details of the game except to say it played with domino type tiles that are classified into three types and numerical sequences. There are a few similarities to gin rummy actually, which is one of the reasons I was able to catch on relatively quickly (although I would not have been able to compete seriously without the help of the restaurant staff who took quite an interest in the whole process). And just like you go down in gin rummy once you've filled out your cards, so in mah jong when you get your tiles in the proper sequences (with runs and triples just like in gin rummy) you declare victory. But one interesting difference between going down in gin rummy and mah jong is that while in gin rummy one person wins and everyone else loses, but in mah jong when one person goes down as a result of a tile he's picked up from another person, the person who put down the tile is the loser and as for the other players, as Mrs Z said "it has nothing to do with them." They don't win, but they don't lose. Only the poor chump who put down the tile that gave the other person the winning tile is the loser. I do not think there is any parallel in any American game I've played (and I've since found out this concept is unique to the Sichuan province). How to interpret this? My best explanation is that it is a way to save face for more people than the standard system of winners and losers. That is, in a four person game only one person loses as opposed to the standard way in gin rummy or any group game really where the three others lose. And it is really quite a differece, I can tell you, a difference you feel once you understand the concept although you can hear it as well in the tone of the voice of Mrs. Z when she says "You lose;he wins; it's nothing to me."