An Old Tradition Clicks With Students

"It sounded interesting, and she showed us the tiles and then we decided to play," said Glenn Kinsman, 12. "And then people from other classes started coming."

Tevelin herself did not learn the game that her grandmother and mother played. "At the pool in the summer, we swam and all the mothers played mah-jongg," she said. "I remember, as a child, listening to the clickety-clack of the tiles on the table." She learned about 20 years ago and is now in a regular mah-jongg group.

Besides being something they can continue through their lives, she said, the game is a good ice-breaker for sixth-graders just entering the school.

"Two girls who for the first part of the year did not say a word to anybody, mah-jongg has given them a voice," she said. "Kids who did not talk before are talking now. Kids who were not friends before got to know each other because of mah-jongg."

Tevelin has shown them her grandmother's set -- a worn snakeskin case containing yellowed tiles. Several of the students have found their own sets on e-Bay, and some have tried to teach their families to play.

Gino's grandmother played in the Philippines. But some had never tried it.

"It was kind of hard to teach them," said Brooke Rippy, 12.

"My dad still can't pronounce it," Glenn added.

Melvin Argueta, 11, said that his sister, who is 16, likes the fact that he plays, because "I can finally do something that she can't."

This month, Britanya Rapp, who goes to the Langston-Brown Multipurpose Senior Center in Arlington, watched them play and now hopes to arrange for the children to come teach her and senior citizens there who are interested in learning the game.

Rapp's grandmother, who was from Berlin, used to play. "It's sort of like I don't want it to die out," she said. "It was really a part of my family."

Seeing the children inspired her to learn, she added. "They were talking to me about how they're going to continue to play when they're older. . . . And here we are, seniors, and I don't know where the people are who know how to play. Mah-jongg can give us interaction and camaraderie."

Back in Tevelin's classroom, the game ended abruptly.

"We call!" cried Maddy Brehaut, 12. "Mah-jongg!"

Everyone else assessed how close they'd been. Brooke displayed her team's tiles, an assortment of colors and designs that had not won but evinced a certain elegance.

"We went for the prettiest hands," she joked.