Fantastic! Just fantastic! Llongyfarchiadau @Novem. 
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My goodness! well done @Novem 
- all those sheep and red dragons have had a profound effect 
!
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For unwinding purposes, Iād recommend some gentle walks, somewhere pleasant, if there is anywhere handy, and if weather permits. Donāt take headphones, MP3 player/phone (not for lessons, anyway!), wrth gwrs.
The imaginary conversations are a good thing, I think.
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I survived school!
Iām happy to do it again in a lab if you make 35 (or 36, I like even numbers more) lessons 
Oh, I was listening to Radio Cymru as I read thatā¦ So, I shouldnāt listen to that or Welsh music for a couple of days? Or do you just mean lessons? I donāt have any left anyway.
I noticed I did challenges a lot faster on the second day. I stopped taking the 5-minute breaks at some point because I didnāt know what to do during them. On the morning of the second day, the first few only felt a few minutes long compared to the ones I did the evening before. I went through at least 10 before I started feeling like time was passing at a normal rate. As for the last two of each day, I kept checking the time every five minutes feeling like the challenge should have ended already. They were always the most difficult ones. Actually, I think the most difficult part of the whole thing was starting the last challenge. Took a lot of time to overcome the temptation to just do it tomorrow.
Wellā¦ I thought the challenges actually felt really easy. I had already done the older courses, so I expected them to be easy, but I think I read somewhere that they were supposed to get more difficult. I think (ignoring challenges 24 and 25 for a moment) I got maybe about 80% completely right, usually on time but not always (I often talked over Catrin or started saying the sentence before you were done saying it in English). Iād guess that āalmost rightā would be pretty close to 90%. I had trouble remembering some new words the first few times (at least faint, hugeiniau and heibio) and I never managed to say some sentences in time (Ai eich plant chi ydi rheina?, Oes gynnoch chi blant eich hunain? and I wonāt look up the last ones because I need to answer that question about whether or not I can remember the new stuff from the last challenge). For challenges 24 and 25 it probably dropped to about 60% for both almost right and completely right. Iām not sure about any of this, though. Iād love to listen to myself do this to see how it actually went. Probably should have recorded myself.
I only started noticing how tired I was when I took a break for lunch. Or actually whenever I took any break. I guess thatās partly why I stopped having them. Three friends started messaging me in the middle of challenge 25 asking me to help them with our math homework because they couldnāt figure it out and were panicking, so I took a break and it was pretty difficult to continue after it. I managed to force myself to press play 
It felt really long. I donāt know how to write any of the words, I didnāt look at the vocab lists.
Iāll write more later, right now I have to do my homework. Iāll try to think of the words when Iām done with it. Itās getting a bit late here and I havenāt started yetā¦ 
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Does gen i ddim syniad sut wnest ti hynna! Ond llongyfarchiadau!
I have.no idea how you did that! But congratulations!
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Okay, Iām back. So, about the last challengeā¦
I can currently think of only a couple of things that might have been introduced then. One is wouldnāt you? in English, one is the really ācompressedā version of to tell me. Iām pretty sure thatās all I can think of at the moment.
Ooh, really nice! Will you write a blog post (or write anything anywhere) about how it goes?
Thanks, Iāll try to find time to do that 
Iām 15, so youād have to wait three years
Where is that picture from? Looks really nice. I canāt think of any places close enough to my place like that, I have too much to do at school to go far away 
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Have you been learning Finnish? 
I donāt think Iāve ever seen a black and white flag before, thatās really cool. Not as cool as the Welsh dragon, but cool
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Yes, definitelyā¦
Thank you SO much for that hugely valuable detailed feedback.
It sounds (excitingly) as though you may actually have experienced some neural adaptation (to the prompt/response process) in the course of the two days. I expected you to say that the whole of the second day felt extremely hard, so the fact that you flew through the beginning of it is very, very interesting.
Donāt worry about listening to Radio Cymru - that can only be beneficial - in fact, thereās no particular reason why you shouldnāt carry on with lessons, if you had any left - we just try to make the point with the accelerated approach that you really donāt need to do any extra work on your āoffā daysā¦
It would be fantastic if you could let us know how you feel over the next two or three days - if you notice extra tiredness, or anything else out of the ordinary.
Youāve really inspired me to think in terms of pushing even harder with some of the 5 day testing I want to do. When we have enough new material for some other languages, it might be interesting to have a few of our most confident learners do a 5 day challenge (with video diaries) at the same timeā¦
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Annheg!!!
What about the less confident and video diaries are scareyā¦i mean i have a great face for radio!!!
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Day 2 after intense weekend: Definitely noticing extra tiredness Iām annoying everyone by starting every conversation by complaining about how tired I amā¦ Also my throat still hurts from speaking so much. Oh, and I noticed I used some Welsh words in the language lab by accident today.
Okay, that was a bit too negative. Really, I feel great. Iām really tired, but Iām super happy with my Welsh and how much I can understand when listening to music and radio. Iād definitely do it again if I could.
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Thatās very interesting too - what language were you aiming for? Swedish?
The tiredness is inevitable. I would have been worried if you werenāt feeling itā¦
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Probably due to lack of concentration due to tiredness,
May I say, I think it is clear from your description of your Marathon that you are very bright and also young. I strongly suspect I could have done something like that in my teens, in fact, I did some Russian before doing Scientific Russian at Uni and the lectures never taught me anything I hadnāt already learned and remembered.
@aran Beware using very bright young ladies as templates when designing courses. Most people are not like @Novem!
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Thank you
Iām doing two things at the moment - templating, with a first test probably in February, and testing limits - for the latter, what Novem has done here is very informativeā¦
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Diolch for showing me my typo, now corrected above!
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Just thought Iād state the obvious - even if I was fit enough to travel, there is no way my brain would stand up to one of your intensive courses now! Or if it did, Iād forget all my English for about a week!!! (Types she who, when younger, returned from a week in Paris with a strong Quebecois accent!)
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Yes, Swedishā¦ Words like ābutā, āorā, āifā, āandā ālike(as in to be like something)ā and āsomethingā always seem to come out in Welsh and I have to correct myself. Usually takes a really long time to think of the Swedish for them (the Welsh one just sort of keeps repeating in my head). I also try to start sentences in Welsh without noticing.
This isnāt the first time this has happened, but itās never been this strong before 
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Heh, I had those problems after a bootcamp.
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Same after mini bootcamp! most unusual
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Whatever you are thinking is probably right! He was reporting for Radio Canada on a visit to La Belle France by an important Quebecois politician! I was there for a Scientific Meeting!!
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Day 3 after intense weekend: Iām not tired anymore My throat still hurts, thoughā¦
@aran, when you did the 18 Manx challenges, did your throat hurt in the evening? Iām not sure if this is just because Iām shy and not used to speaking that much in a day or if itās normal.
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