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!

Watch the video by clicking on the link below.

dexway in London

If you want to learn a foreign language or you speak more than one language, then you are in a privileged position. You have more opportunities in job sectors, you can travel more confidently and learn about different cultures by speaking to local people, and you can also consider how words work and change between different languages.

Walter Bejamin was a philosopher and intellectual who lived from 1892 to 1940 and he had some really amazing ideas about different languages and cultures.  In his essay of 1923, “The Task of the Translator” he discussed how translations of literature often underline aspects that are not so obvious in the original, and that some parts of the original just don’t translate into the target language.  This is one of the things a person learning a new language will discover; there are lots of phrases that don’t have an exact equivalent in another language.

You may be asking, ‘how does this make us philosophers like Walter Benjamin was?’

Well, when you find a phrase that doesn’t really translate word for word into another language you might think about why it doesn’t.  This could lead to a better understanding of what it is we are trying to express with words. Walter Benjamin believed that the difference between languages was the key to philosophical truth. Do you think learning another language can bring you closer to understanding the way your own language works within a specific culture?

How can I access the forums?

Through the portal www.dexway.com and then starting the session with the access keys to enter the dexway Community. By clicking on “enter” inside of the forum section, the corresponding forums and threads are automatically downloaded to the student’s course.

Alternatively, from the student platform, it can be accessed through Communication>Forums.

What is dynamic about the forums?

In the forums, the tutors present activities and subjects about all of the cultural nuances in the country. In this way, a cultural education is obtained through the interactions between tutors and students.

The tutors are in charge of presenting the activity, as well as animating and moderating the thread. In addition to posting comments through writing, they also post a recorded video so that the students can pick up the pronunciation, intonation and language verbally. At dexway, we like to take advantage of every occasion to promote reading and verbal comprehension, helping us equally with our tutors’ presentation in order to humanize eLearning language education.

What subjects are covered?

Four subjects are covered and they are continually refreshed. Choosing a subject is determined by its relevancy, novelty and importance needed for learning.

Forums and study groups

dexway also offers its students Study Groups: an environment where the students meet to exchange experiences, chat and practice grammar aspects or use the language when they consider opportune. The exchange is done in the virtual video-conference room with a virtual blackboard and projector, available 24×7×365 days a year.

The forum is an asynchronous communication tool that stimulates reflection, investigation and editing, as opposed to the spontaneity and verbal usage within the Study Groups. However, both educational environments are essential in the teaching of languages; so we recommend that students make use of both as much as they wish.

Dexway is as close as we get to private instruction at the house of each student, without the need to move anywhere when you have available native speaking tutors 24×7×365 days a year through the one2one virtual classroom.

dexway students practice the pronunciation of words and expressions that appear throughout. They record their voice in a way where they can hear their own pronunciation and compare it to that of a native speaker. At the same time, the exercises are indicated instantaneously with colors if the pronunciation is correct or not and what part of the word or expression needs to be improved.

The color green indicates that the pronunciation is correct, while the one in red indicates that it is wrong. The intermediate tones allow the student to see that he or she must improve the intonation and pronunciation.

Additionally, the student can see the wave graphic and in this way compare it with the voice of a native speaker.

In this way, the student has an automatic pronunciation evaluator, alongside a personalized pronunciation evaluation made on behalf of native speakers with all of the free expression exercises.

These courses include twelve courses. Six of them are individual classes with an instructor geared toward obtaining these certifications. The other six lessons consist of practice or test exercises that the student performs to prove the level reached until he or she is certain that they are prepared to take the corresponding linguistic competency test. Students can repeat the tests as many times as they want and they have at least three months to perform them.

Currently, dexway has prep courses for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and for the First Certificate in English (FCE), one of the ESOL English level exams offered by the University of Cambridge.

For the mere fact of being so, dexway students have other advantageous benefits and special offers through the Community to matriculate themselves into these courses.

With all of the different advantages from the dexway method, these business English courses provide, in only one system, everything students need to develop themselves in professional and business sectors.

MODES: dexway offers different modes, through which dexway courses add specific business English lessons (dexway Business) and also with courses in which the content is 100% focused and developed for business (Business Basic/Intermediate and Business Advanced).

DEXWAY BUSINESS.

The student will find within these courses the dexway solution to learn English, with generic courses at all levels to which specific business lessons are added.

- All levels

- 70 hour courses over 7 months

- Linguistic immersion lessons with business English content.

- one2one consultations 24/7, 365 days a year

- Private classes with an instructor (Everything) or in a group (Plus)

- Personalized pronunciation evaluation

- Initial placement test that includes instructor recommendations

- Final exam and dexway diploma

- Detailed reports on monitoring, participation and progress

- dexway community

BUSINESS BASIC / INTERMEDIATE & BUSINESS ADVANCED

100% focused on the language of business and entrepreneurship. The student will enjoy an online English course specifically developed to master the language of business from a minimal level of knowledge. All of the content in these courses has been expressly developed and created to master the language in a professional context.

- Two levels: Basic/Intermediate and Advanced

- 60 hour courses over 6 months

- Linguistic immersion lessons specifically for business English

- one2one consultations 24/7, 365 days a year

- Private classes with an instructor (Everything)

- Personalized pronunciation evaluation

- Detailed reports on monitoring, participation and progress

- dexway community

LIVE CLASSES WITH AN INSTRUCTOR

The dexway Business, Business Basic/Intermediate and Advanced courses include private classes with a live instructor by using a virtual blackboard through the one2one Coach system that dexway makes available. Thanks to its advanced eLearning technology, dexway allows the student to enjoy these virtual private classes from anywhere, with a simple click and without the need to install any additional application.

These classes with an instructor are established during the course through the calendar and by hours available. The student will always have these classes with an instructor guaranteed and the student will receive an alert that tells them when their next one2one Coach class is scheduled.

In addition to these types of classes, students can ask the questions that they need from dexway instructors with a simple click and no need to leave the course, at any moment, 365 days a year.

In short, dexway Business, Business Basic/Intermediate and Business Advanced provide all of the advantages from the dexway language method, alongside some specific business content that transforms these courses into the best solution in learning and dominating English within business and professional contexts.

For more information, go to: www.dexway.com

dexway

In this manner, the dexway tablet was born, specially designed for teaching languages through this type of portable tablet with which the user interacts through a comfortable tactile screen         (iPad, tablets Android, etc.).

dexway tablet users have fun while learning with linguistic immersion lessons, voice-recognition software, pronunciation evaluation on behalf of native tutors, oral and written exercises corrected by teachers, community: preparation of international linguistic competency certificates, etc.

More information: www.dexway.com

dexway technology and the continually innovative work from its creators have allowed this language method – chosen the best eLearning product of the year – to go even further with the addition of all the advantages of one-to-one learning with the best online language learning method.

In this way, with the permanent accompaniment of the dexway tutors – to which students can see and speak with at any moment – they are put into “study groups” which allow dexway students to practice and converse with their friends during the course or at the end.

Just as with any school or traditional institution, dexway students will enjoy all of the online learning advantages while they get to know and speak with their friends, “from the classroom” – during the course, or “while in the backyard” or “in the cafeteria” when finalizing the same. Through a virtual video-conference chat room that is permanently enabled every day of the year, students connect simultaneously where they can speak with other students in the same course or with other native students of the language they’re learning to exchange conversation.

These groups allow them to get to know other people with the same educational concerns, practice aspects of grammar, vocabulary and course dialogues, or simply have fun while you improve your oral and comprehensive expressions in the foreign language.

Entrance to the room is immediate, and the system looks for users in which the student is interested in at the moment, while he or she is taking the course, without having to exit, all with one click and without the need of any other additional application, all through dexway.