How do/did you overcome your own sunk cost fallacy in language learning?

[rdearman]

Devil's advocate: a person who expresses a contentious opinion in order to provoke debate or test the strength of the opposing arguments.

I know the definition, thanks:) But notice that so far your ostensibly 'contentious' opinion gathered the most likes in this thread. Actually, it's a very wise and solid recommendation provided that someone is interested in the culture of L2. Otherwise for all such devil's advocates God provided a special place in Hell: a classroom where they will be learning Category III and IV languages of the cultures they have zero investment for the rest of their afterlife Or, worse yet, they will memorizing the digits of Pi (infernal laughter)

That is why in my first post I recommended that they attempt to connect with the culture before giving up. Actually, memorization of PI is fairly straightforward, although I personally gave up at 50 decimal places.

[einzelne]

Actually, memorization of PI is fairly straightforward, although I personally gave up at 50 decimal places.

Devil's advocate speaking: Why did you gave up so early? The lack of habit, I bet!

So cultivate a habit of memorizing Pi. Do you assume you have to be in the mood to go to work? Does your employer? Must you be in the mood to feed your family? Do they assume this when their stomachs growl for dinner? etc

That is why in my first post I recommended that they attempt to connect with the culture before giving up.

If you haven't connected with the culture before starting your language journey and even after studying it for more than a year, then you obviously don't need it (unless, of course, you move to the country of L2 and you basically have no option but this is not the case here). No need to delude oneself, especially when it comes to such a challenging language as Japanese. It will be as useful as memorizing as much digits of Pi as possible.

[bolaobo]

If you haven't connected with the culture before starting your language journey and even after studying it for more than a year, then you obviously don't need it (unless, of course, you move to the country of L2 and you basically have no option but this is not the case here). No need to delude oneself, especially when it comes to such a challenging language as Japanese. It will be as useful as memorizing as much digits of Pi as possible.

Well, the OP mentioned that they once "hit it hard" and didn't have motivation "anymore", so presumably they were interested enough at one point. It's possible the language learning difficulty drained that interest, but they're still interested at heart.

[thevagrant88]

Thanks for the experience and perspective. I’ve been focusing on other interests since making this post and, wait for it, my head hasn’t exploded. Go figure. The existential pressure we put on ourselves sometimes is real.

[dampingwire]

Or, worse yet, they will be memorizing the digits of Pi (infernal laughter)

I spent a few weeks (while at school) memorising the digits of pi. A few of us wanted to get into the Guiness Book of World Records. I got somewhere slightly beyond 500 digits when someone checked and (at the time) the record was over ten thousand digits. It wasn't particularly painfull to do, so if that's what Hell is like, I guess I should enjoy myself much more while I'm here

To drag it back on topic, I had no problem at all stopping when my raison d'être vanished (or, at least, the goalposts sprinted off over the horizon), so no problem with sunk cost in that case.

(I suppose I should see how long it takes me to re-learn the first 100 digits ... a sort of "how long will my language learning last if I drop it" experiment).