A key consideration in course planning and teaching is motivation, which is sometimes considered the single most important factor in the practical realisation of language teaching in the classroom. The motivation students have for attending recreational courses can be somewhat different from that of students in school and university programs. Unlike students in some classes, they come to class of their own will, which means that they are initially motivated. No matter how students are motivated initially, however, teachers must keep them motivated. Teachers play an important role in the classroom, particularly for a course conducted outside of the target language country, because students do not have many opportunities to use the target language outside class. It is easy for students to lose interest when necessity, stimulus, or feedback are not readily available. In this article, the author discusses how to design and plan a course program that sustains students' motivation. She describes a Japanese short course and shares how she designed her own teaching material in Japanese class with the goal of keeping the students motivated and helping them learn.