When: Saturday Oct. 23, 12am-11:59pm (using your own timezone)
What: Study as much Japanese as possible, and then share success on RevTK forums.

My girlfriend is out of town and my entire Saturday is open. I'm dedicating the day to a Japanese marathon. From the time I wake up until the time I go to bed, I'm going to study and learn as much Japanese as possible. This thread is for anyone who'd like to join me.

I'm going to post updates as the day progresses, most likely when I take breaks for meals or any other purposes. At the end of the day, I'm going to post a summary as well as screenshots of my Anki stats. I encourage any other marathon participants to do so as well. After everyone's updates and Anki screenshots are up, we can then discuss our experiences and declare winners.

P.S. If this takes off, I'll probably make it a regular thing.

Okay, I just woke up and I'm getting started. Here's what my start-up screen looks like right now.

Since I don't know what to expect today, I added 1000 new cards to my 記憶する deck, which I use to memorize new words )the deck replicates the cram mode in Anki). I typically learn through my 記憶する deck when I'm on the train to campus. During the ~1hr train ride, I can usually initially view and review ~100 cards, with the cards initially viewed earlier having more reviews than the cards initially viewed later. Using this baseline, I figured that viewing and reviewing 1000 new cards is a distant possibility, but a clear source of motivation.

Okay, let the games begin...

First review. Apparently, over 20 cards had become due while I was reviewing. These must be the ~150 new cards I initially viewed in my 単語 deck before I went to bed. Hopefully they're still fresh in my mind, and I'll quickly conquer them. Anyway, it's time for me to go to the gym. I look forward to the large due count that will await me.

I'm joining. Aiming for 200 new Kanji today to push past the 1500 mark, the Spider-Man ones are extremely easy and fun to memorize (as were the Mr. T ones), so this does seem feasible.

EDIT: First 100 beat (at 1432 now), whiskey is pretty fun

EDIT2: SUCCESS! That was exhilarating.

Just got back from the gym. Here's the review session I just completed.

It's part of my routine and it doesn't seem out of the ordinary for me, but upon reflection it seems rather unusual to immediately review Japanese flashcards after finishing a session of Muay Thai sparring. Come to think of it, further reflection makes me think I must come across as a curious character. This is validated by the fact that people are usually shocked and puzzled at my past history. Gaming geek, slightly-emo kid (this I regret the most), raver (surprisingly, I met lots of intelligent people at these, esp. computer programmers), academic-in-training, and Japanese learner are categories that I doubt fit into many personal histories. There's plenty of other atypical things about me, but I'll spare the details. I went off-track, but I thought it would make a semi-interesting read. What unusual stories or histories does everyone else have?

Anyway, time to pick up the pace...

Okay, I just finished dinner. Here's my review stats from right before I started cooking (over 3hrs ago!).

I was planning to eat quickly and immediately return to studying, but my roommate came to the kitchen to get some water and realized I was cooking curry rice (カレーライス). When I was preemptively washing some dishes, she went ahead and began tending to the ingredients I had been stir-frying. I figured she was indirectly telling me that she wanted to eat too (she's Japanese). Since I was in a light mood and I didn't want to seem socially inept (空気読めない), I told her she could join me. After finishing dinner, one of my other roommates showed up with a banana cream pie from Marie Calendar's. Perfect timing for dessert. So, here I am after eating the pie, drinking some coffee, and talking with my roommates.

I'm going to try to reach 500 new words before the clock strikes 12. Hopeful, but in doubt...

Final review. 440 new cards and 3611 reviews in 3.7hrs study time. Almost 100 cards every 6 minutes. If you're thinking about switching to vocab cards or simply curious, then consider these figures.

Anyway, my goal today was to study for around 10hrs, but I didn't even reach the halfway point! Nevertheless, I'm satisfied with my results. I'm mostly free tomorrow, so I'm going to experiment once again. I won't post live updates, but I'll share my results at the end of the day in this thread.

P.S. Congrats PATRICKRL! Continue to set high goals. I've noticed that I achieve a lot when I do so, regardless of whether I reach my goal or not.