What better way to start a blog on improving your English than by briefly mentioning motivation. After 20 years of teaching English, the effort to start this blog has itself required motivation … And it will take motivation to keep this blog active. In all our years of language training, one important subject which often pops up is motivation. We can have excuses for why we haven’t progressed with our English, but few ideas on how we can progress. The push, the motivation has to come from within. There has to be a target, a goal – nothing too ambitious, but something which is achievable on a daily basis. So how can you motivate yourself to improve your English? Well, the subject of motivation needs to be looked at in many future posts in this blog, but the first step is for you to turn to yourself for that push you need. A teacher has an important role in guiding you in your progress in English, but you have to learn by yourself and not have the task done for you.