Use iGoogle as your home page

Today's idea is a simple one. The idea is that one of the best ways to learn a language is to surround yourself by it. For example, one very good way to learn a language is to go and live in the country where it is spoken. You will learn in the classroom of course, but the really intelligent learners also learn out side the classroom.

Learning from what is around you
How can they do this? They look and they listen to see how the language is used. "There's a signpost. What does it say?"

Can you learn anything from this signpost? Yes. You can learn that the words "speed" and "limit" are used together. That's an important lesson.

How about the online world?
What happens if you cannot go and live in the country where the language is spoken? Can you still use this way of learning? Yes, of course. All you need is a little imagination. What you need to do is think about how you can use your computer to get the experience of living in an English speaking country.

What do you always see when you go to the internet?
The answer to this question is your home page. This is what mine looks like:

What this is is iGoogle. On this page I can see lots of things in English I can look at and learn from just as if I was living in England. It's in fact quite like the apps on an iPhone. I've got one of those too but iGoogle is completely free.

A video tutorial
If you are interested in this way of learning have a look at this video tutorial where I explain a bit more. Even if you aren't, listen anyway as it will be good listening practice.



How to set up iGoogle
 I will write next time on how to set up iGoogle. For now, here is a very brief description:

1. go to Google
2. click sign in in the top right corner
3. either enter your Gmail account details
   or create a Gmail account - you can use any other email address to do this
4. click iGoogle
5. follow the instructions on the page

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