This is my first time creating a topic, so I’m really sorry if I did something wrong or if there is already a topic for this.
So, I decided to try to do 35 challenges in a weekend and I was told to tell you how it goes.
I’m so tired. I’ve just finished my 18th and last challenge for today. I remember that in the morning it felt really easy, but then they started feeling longer and longer. Now I have a slight headache and I’m hungry even though I’m pretty sure I’ve eaten as much as I usually do. Tomorrow I will try to do the rest. I’ll update then.
That sounds very familiar. I’m fairly sure that means you and I are the only people in the world to have done 18 sessions in one day…
Feeling a bit nervous for you for tomorrow - but whatever happens, even if you just do one session, you’re into record-breaking territory, since no-one else has done 18 sessions and then more the next day…
Wow, wow, wow! Brilliant - well done! Really looking forward to hearing more about this.
(I’ve just gone back to university after 25 years - my brain feels like it’s about to leak out of my ears. I wake up every morning feeling as though I’ve got a mild hangover even though I haven’t been drinking. Making your brain work hard is tough! But it’s like a muscle - the more you use it the stronger it will get. I think you’re doing the equivalent of running back-to-back marathons. Go you!)
Yes, and the bit about feeding is right!!! You need the same sort of high protein diet - in fact I think the reason our brain could develop more than those of apes was because we got a more protein-rich diet! And you’ll need energy as well. Just don’t carry on with extra sugar after the Challenge!!!
“Dwi’n synnu at faint dwi 'di dysgu mewn amser byr.”
Near the end I noticed I started to have these moments where I was sure I completely missed what Aran said, but then somehow said something in Welsh without thinking and got it right.
I feel like I want to spend tomorrow just lying on the sofa and listening to Welsh music and radio, but I’ll have to wake up early and go to school. And learn more. Oh well, at least I’ll sleep well tonight.
What a brilliant achievement, you should be really proud of yourself after that, you deserve a rest … and some ice cream, we all deserve ice cream, now I want ice cream.
Update: That thing about how I will sleep well? Yeeah… It’s not happening.
Today’s and yesterday’s Welsh sentences (and English words I don’t know or can’t remember in Welsh) keep constantly popping into my head. I’m having imaginary “conversations” in Welsh in my head without wanting to (okay, wanting to, but not trying to). I managed to fall asleep for a bit and had a short dream with some Welsh in it, but then I woke up and have been having the Welsh words popping into my head thing happen again
So… to anyone who is planning on doing 35 challenges in two days, I suggest not having something early in the morning the day after. This might be just my problem (I’ve had trouble falling asleep before and I have to take medication for it at the moment), but just in case.
Also, I wanted to say thanks to everyone for saying such nice things
It’s probably not surprising - think of all this new information your brain has just taken in. It’s going to want to process it all and file it away where it can get at it before it gets forgotten. So it shows that the experiment is working!
Oh dear! Firstly:-
Secondly - your poor brain is overloaded with data and needs about two days to file it all!! Definitely not a good thing to do before school or work. If you ever try something like this again, I suggest the holidays would be better!! I suspect, also, that you were subconsciously aware, while trying to sleep, that you needed to get up for school and be alert at school! I do hope you survive your day without too much trouble!!!
No, actually, anything more than wow would just be calling attention to myself.
Wow!
That is an extraordinary achievement, and one that should really have been done in a lab, because I’m sure that the brain scans would have given us and all sorts of scientific fields a huge amount of fascinating data.
Having done 6 lessons in one hit myself once, I cannot imagine 35!
Please keep us informed about how your Welsh pans out over the next few weeks. It’s recommended that you don;t do any active Welsh for a few days while your brain assimilates the new information (@Aran will come in to give you more information on this, I’m sure), but from the Welsh explosions happening in your brain (e not sleeping etc), I’m guessing that the filing and assimilating process is already in full swing.
I wonder whether meditation would help to calm the mind after such a huge upload of information, or whether learning all the basics of a language in 36 hours is just too much to allow for a quiet mind in the period following.
I may come back to answer further when I can think again, but I shall leave you with one thought for now.
I’m not surprised you had trouble sleeping - and I hope you don’t feel you need to do any more in school today than just keep your eyes open as much of the time as possible…
I’d love to hear more about how the second day compared to the first, in terms of how difficult it felt, how often you thought you were getting the responses nearly right, how conscious you were of being tired…
I’m particularly keen to know what the last challenge felt like - and whether or not you can now call to mind any of the new items that were introduced in that challenge (and I’ll be asking again in a week or so, to see what it’s like then).
We’ve had an offer from Bangor University to do a new 5 day intensive course in February, in partnership with them - I’m thinking of targeting 10 challenges a day for that, plus some other work, so you having achieved in 2 days almost as much as I’m going to pushing them to do in 4 is very encouraging indeed…
Oh well, at least I’ll sleep well tonight.
