[technofiend]

After looking online I believe we're playing a Hong Kong / Chinese ruleset. I think my original comment implied I introduced the game to my family but I did not. One of my aunts is a Buddhist monk and she learned the game at her temple. We play with a photocopy of a photocopy of rules with American boards. The game was popular in the 40s and 50s so finding a set at an estate sale or flea market is possible, you just have to be careful that it's a full set and all tiles are included.

You're right in that there is some complexity if people are going for named hands. But it's the matter of minutes to teach someone the basics and the classic winning Mahjong hand that stops the game. You can usually get through a few games repeating the rules for scoring at the end to emphasize the basics and then let new players add complexity as they get comfortable.

I think the other reason it's popular is because although you might be the person who called out Mahjong to stop the game, someone else can easily beat your score. Plus there are no alliances to be made and broken: everyone stands on their own.

If you teach someone the game my suggestion is just hand them a copy of the scoring rules and score their hand with them a few times until they're comfortable. This is not (IMHO) a game you teach in one session.

For anyone who has played computer mahjong and is scratching their head wondering what the heck we're talking about this is not just pairs matching. The game when played with humans is very different. Same tiles, but different rules.