As I promised, from time to time I will be listing Mah Jongg teachers around the country. Today I want to introduce you to Barbie Cohn Andreason who lives in Minnetonka, Minnesota and is easily accessible to all of you in the Twin Cities area.

Barbie can be reached by phone: 952-525-0840

or by email: 2bbcohn@comcast.net

Barbie has taught 116 people in just the last 2 years (last time she tried to count!).  But there are many more of her former students playing in the Twin Cities area since she started teaching in 1999. By the way, Barbie is not only a prolific Mah Jongg teacher…here are her own words about her other hobby:

I am also an avid miniaturist. I make dollhouses, room boxes, etc., in  1” scale. Some of my Mah Jongg students are from my miniature guild, so now we share 2 passions. 2 of the photos are of tiny miniature Mah Jongg scenes I’ve done ( I just finished another but it is not yet photographed (I write for a miniaturists magazine) .

I did a 12-room, 3-story Judaic miniature. Each room is a different Jewish holiday or ritual. I was thinking of what to put in the 12th room & decided to do a Mah Jongg room as it is such a familiar game to those of us who grew up listening to those tiles clicking. At any rate, The magazine decided to feature one room a month over the course of a year. It was hard to explain in the text how Mah Jongg fit in to our culture!!!

Barbie – thank you for your wonderful emails and the fabulous pictures you have been sending. For those of you snuggled away in the cold and snowy Twin Cities right now, you are very lucky to have access to the beautiful Barbie!

I hope you enjoy some of the wonderful photos that Barbie has sent to us!