Watch the MayorsOfficeLondon’s “New Bus for London” video on youtube

 

Transcript:

What the mayor wants to see is the return of a great icon for London and the cleanest, greenest red bus that goes round our city.

We’ve said, “let’s design it afresh; let’s look at what else we can do; let’s not just take buses off the production line, as we currently do; let’s look at a new bus, particularly designed and exclusively designed for London.”

The staircases, which are normally a dark well that you walk through to pop up to upstairs… we’re making the windows flow and follow that, and so it suddenly becomes quite distinctive. As a bus user you’ll be able to see out as you walk up the staircase.

We’re going to have the best environmental bus, using the best of hybrid technology. We’re going to have one that’s going to be fuel efficient, and it’s going to be lighter than other buses, and it’s going to use different techniques in terms of its production.

We’re at the embryo stages of taking the 3D designs and turning those into a full scale mock-up, so we can start to look at this and get the touch and the feel, and understanding of what the product will be when it’s finished.

What’s been exciting about this project is the chance, as a team, to really look, for the first time in many years, at the complete project and look at the inside and the outside of a bus.

We want it to be inspiring, we want it to be fun; we want this new bus to encompass everything that is great about travelling around London on an icon, like the old Routemaster was.

It’s not just about taking the current design and the current engineering available. It’s leapfrogging across that, so it’s not evolutionary; it’s jumping to the next level.

What we need to come up with is something that is not just an evolution, it needs to be a revolution, it needs to really make people stop and notice what’s going on on the streets and I think we’ve come up with something that is genuinely a world-breaking design.

The open platform: we deliberately designed it so that people can hop on and off, but we’re also designing it so that when we don’t need a second crew member on the back of the bus, that we can close it off as well so that we can be as efficient as we possibly can in terms of providing value for money.

This new bus will have three doors, two staircases, it’s going to be absolutely spectacular in design, and underneath all of that encasement will be a wonderful sense of new technology, new green technology, it will be a hybrid bus.

My reckoning is we’re going to have a fantastic bus for London, it’s going to be one that Boris is going to be really proud of and so will Londoners.

This has caught the imagination of, not just Londoners, not just the UK, but really the world.

I can categorically say: you will never see anything like this anywhere else in the world.

It’ll be, hopefully, the ultimate bus, a new icon for London, and something that people can feel really proud about when they ride on them.

 

The students learning American English are talking about burger recipes in the dexway community forums. So we thought we’d ask the tutors to show us one of their favorite (American spelling) recipes.

Click here to watch the dexway burger and fries video on youtube…

Here’s the transcript of the narration in case you’re struggling with the English. For students learning British English, see if you can notice any differences in the words used and the pronunciation.

 

This is a video for a delicious burger and fries inspired by Heston Blumenthal’s recipe. I’ll be using magic flying potatoes but you can use regular potatoes. You’ll also need: tomato, lettuce, cheese, pickles, burger buns, ground beef, sauces, cooking oil, salt and pepper.

Let’s start by peeling the potatoes.

In the UK they call fries chips, and they call chips crisps. Maybe the George and Ira Gershwin song should say “you say chips and I say fries, let’s call the whole thing off!” Once you have your potatoes cut into fries, fill up a pot with cold water…

Put it on a medium heat and put the potatoes in.

Bring the pot to the boil and cook the fries for 10 to 15 minutes to soften them.

Then, drain the fries and leave them to cool down, you can put them in the refrigerator or the freezer if you want to speed up the process.

Get a clean pot and put in enough cooking oil to deep fry the potatoes, we are going to fry them twice and the first time it needs to be a medium heat, around 270 degrees Fahrenheit.

Fry the potatoes for about 10 minutes at this temperature, then take them out and leave them to cool again.

Now let’s take the ground beef and lay a couple of pieces of Saran wrap on a chopping board.

You want all the strands of beef to be lying in the same direction so that when we cut the beef into patties they are really tender.  Roll up the ends of the Saran wrap and poke some holes through the wrap to let the air escape when you roll up the package to form a large compact sausage.

Put the meat into the refrigerator to chill. If the burgers are cold they are less likely to fall apart when you cook them. When the beef is chilled, take it out of the cooler and cut into burgers about an inch thick. If you have any excess burgers you can freeze them.

Cook the burgers on a griddle pan on a medium heat until they’re cooked just how you like them.

Prepare the salad ingredients…

And put your favorite sauces on a burger bun…

Then stack up your ingredients. It’s best to let the burger rest for a couple of minutes, and that’s just the right amount of time to finish off the fries…

This time they need to be fried for about 3 minutes in hot oil. This triple cooking technique gets the fries really nice and crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

When the fries are golden brown take them out of the oil…

And then place them on a plate along with the burger…

And enjoy!

 

Having read a thread on languagehat about the pronunciation of “in re” and other Latin words that are used in English, I began to think about the way foreign accents are used in English. There are numerous foreign words that have been adopted into English. Words borrowed (stolen?) from French and Latin often provoke varied opinions regarding their pronunciation. People tend to question whether they would sound pretentious or risk being misunderstood if they pronounced a word with French origins in a French accent while speaking English, or whether they might sound pretentious simply for using the foreign term in the first place. Sometimes it’s not even a question of whether the person speaking thinks they might sound pretentious. It’s possible that the pronunciation of a certain part of an adopted foreign word is unfamiliar to an anglophone, like the rolled “RR” in Spanish or the guttural French “R”.

It seems that most people tend to think that it’s best not to apply a foreign accent when using adopted words in English, but it’s a bit of a minefield. When I’m speaking to my friends I get a bit annoyed if they pronounce Paris with a French accent (Pari with the guttural “r”), or if they say “Barthelona” with a Spanish accent, but at the same time I think I would get slightly irritated if they pronounced Mont Blanc with a totally English accent as if it were “Mont Blank”. I think it’s with place names that some interesting ideas arise as well as some good points for discussion. If you are not certain how people living in the area would pronounce the town, city or country then perhaps it’s just best to say it with an English accent, that is, of course unless you’re talking about the Thai island of Phuket!

To read the thread on languagehat about the pronunciation of “in re” click here.

 

In the dexway community’s forums some of the students are discussing traditional British pie recipes. Here is a link to a video for a lovely ox-tail pie, a perfect meal for a cold evening. If you need any help with the language then the transcript of the narration is below.

Watch the ox-tail pie video…

This is a recipe for a delicious ox-tail pie. It takes a while to prepare so it’s probably best to make it on your day off!

You will need a sharp knife and a chopping board…

Mushrooms, onions, carrots, bay leaves, butter and cooking oil, parsnips, salt and pepper, bacon, thyme, puff pastry, beef, and wine.

Heat up some oil on a high heat in a big pan and brown the ox-tails. When it’s nicely browned, take it out of the pan and put in the vegetables, chop them up if you are using larger, normal sized vegetables; add the bacon, and the thyme and 2 or 3 bay leaves, and cook them on a medium heat for about 10 minutes.

You can use fresh thyme or dry thyme. Dry thyme is actually incredibly rich in iron.

Add a pinch of salt and pepper. And you can also add some garlic if you like.

When the vegetables have softened add the browned ox-tail and some raw braising steak cut into chunks.

Add a glass of wine… actually let’s make that a whole bottle of wine!

Flowers are pretty, but they don’t taste nice in a pie!

Pour hot water into the pot until you cover all the ingredients. Then turn the heat down to a low heat, and put the lid on the pot.

Leave it for 3 or 4 hours.

The flavours are now all beautifully infused. Take the meat and the vegetables out of the pot, leaving the liquid.

Then turn the heat back up to get the liquid boiling vigorously so it reduces in quantity.

Now, find the pieces of ox-tail, wait for them to cool down, and then take the meat off the bone. Throw the bones back into the reducing stock for a little bit of extra flavour.

Then put all the meat and vegetables into a pie dish, I’m using a baking tray, which isn’t ideal, but I broke my pie dish yesterday!

Now it’s time to roll out the puff pastry. I didn’t make the pastry I bought it ready-made in a supermarket.

Once the liquid has reduced to about 10-20% of its original volume, pour it into the pie dish along with the other ingredients.

Turn the oven on to around 190 degrees centigrade.

If you’re using a pie dish you can crimp the pastry onto the rim so it doesn’t touch any of the ingredients below and end up soggy. You should also cut some small holes into the pastry to let the steam out while it’s cooking.

Place the pie in a hot oven for about half an hour, until the pastry is golden-brown.

If you’re not on a diet you can brush the pastry with melted butter for an extra delicious calorific hit!

Enjoy your pie with some steamed green vegetables, like broccoli or asparagus.

LOVELY!

Dexway is proud to be opening its new offices in London, England.

Watch the video by clicking on the link below.

dexway in London