Quick answer
Teach it by playing. Spend the first fifteen minutes on the tiles by touch and the next fifteen on what a hand is, using one section of the card, so a real hand starts at minute thirty. Play that first hand with the racks open and no Charleston, add the Charleston on hand two, close the racks on hand three, and leave the card's fine print for another night.
Start with the tiles and leave the card for later. Here is a two-hour plan that has a beginner playing a real hand from minute thirty, with the card's fine print saved for another night.
Before they arrive, set the table so the first ten minutes are hands-on
Tiles out of the case and face up in a loose pile, four racks in place, one card per player, and nothing to read. If you have a set with printed numbers on the bams and craks, use it tonight, because the Arabic numerals save a beginner a whole layer of translation.
Decide now that you will not explain scoring, jokers in exposures, the bettor, or table rules tonight. Every one of those can wait a week.
Minutes 0 to 15: the tiles, by touch
Have them sort the face-up pile into groups without telling them what the groups are. Name each group as they find it, whether it is one of the three suits, the winds, the dragons, the flowers or the jokers. Point out that the soap, the plain white tile, is the white dragon.
Then tell them how many of each tile there are. There are four of every suit tile, wind and dragon, each of the three suits runs from one to nine, and there are eight flowers and eight jokers. Names like bam and crak can be learned by using them, not by being told.
Minutes 15 to 30: what a hand is, using one section of the card
Open the card to one section only and explain how it is written. Each colour in a hand stands for a suit, so two colours mean two different suits. A number printed three times means three of that tile, four times means four, and a number printed twice is a pair. Build one hand from that section face up on the table with real tiles so they can see the pattern become objects.
Then close the card. The lesson is that a hand is fourteen tiles matching a pattern, and that the card is a menu, not a rulebook. That is enough for hand one.
Minutes 30 to 60: one open-rack hand, no Charleston
Deal thirteen each, fourteen to East, and skip the Charleston entirely. Everybody plays with their tiles standing face out so the table can see them. You narrate each turn, drawing, deciding, then discarding and naming the tile aloud. When a discard could complete a set for someone, stop the game and walk them through calling it and laying the set face up on the rack.
Let the hand run to the end even if it is a wall game. The point is the rhythm of draw and discard, and the moment they call a tile for the first time.
Hand two: add the Charleston
Now teach the pass. It goes three tiles right, three across and three left, then the optional second round the other way, then the courtesy pass. Keep the racks open for this hand so you can help them choose what to pass, and say out loud what you are passing and why from your own rack.
This is where a beginner first meets the real question of the game, which is what direction a deal is going. Do not answer it for them. Ask them what they see, then tell them what you see.
Hand three: close the racks and let them lose
Normal play. Resist correcting every discard, and correct only the two rules that stop the game working, which are calling a tile before the next player racks, and naming your discard. Everything else is style, and style comes from playing.
If they lose all three hands they have still had a good night, provided they called one tile, passed one Charleston and understood why one direction beat another. That is the whole first lesson.
What to leave for another night, and how to keep them coming back
The joker exchange, the bettor, the pie, dead hands, scoring and payouts, and the local table rules all belong to week two or three. Teach them when they come up in play, one at a time.
Between game nights, a beginner can practise by having a hand read with reasons, covering which direction, what to keep, what to pass and why. The free hand analyzer here does that for any deal tapped into it, and a new hand is read that way every morning, free.
Put it into practice
New to the game? Start the course at Lesson 1, Meet the Tiles. The first three lessons are free and need no account.
Already play? Have the coach read a real dealt hand for you, free. It names the direction the hand goes for, what to keep, what to pass, and the reasoning behind each call.
Part of teaching is explaining why a hand leans one way. Mei, our AI coach, does that for a dealt hand in plain English, free, so your beginner can hear the reasoning at home between game nights.