Students at many universities often fail to reach their full potential as English language learners due to low motivation. Some of the factors that affect their motivation relate to the country's education system in general. Others reflect institutional and cultural views of language learning in particular. Using a problem-solution format, this article (originally published in 1997) discusses cultural and educational factors that affect language learners' motivation and offers strategies to raise motivation. Although this article draws examples from the South Korean context, it is assumed that the problems described and the solutions proposed can be applied to contexts worldwide. (Contains 1 figure.)