My Scouse accent isn’t yours to make fun of

There are many things inherent to the residents of Liverpool and Merseyside: our immense love for the Beatles, an appreciation for fashion and a late night out, for instance. However, the first thing people see (or hear) is our strong accent – perhaps the most distinct in the UK. No one sounds like us, and to me, that's a good thing. We're individuals from one of the most beautiful places in the world. But are we met with appreciation for our unique tongue? Do people go to ask us about our city and all it has to behold?

Fuck no. You're gonna get the piss taken out of you every single day. And it's really fucking boring.

Why focus on the accent when you have views this beaut

At first in Freshers you can laugh it off, you don't wanna come across as cranky, and we're Scouse – we can take a joke. However fast forward to week three, and people constantly asking you to say backpack and chicken get old. Picture having a crowd of people, all from boring towns about 30 miles out of London, ask you to say words of their choosing. We're not dancing monkeys. We're not here to entertain you. Don't ridicule us.

You might be thinking: why does it have to be so deep? We're only having a joke. And some people are having a joke, me and my actual friends have a giggle over each others' accents all the time. That's okay.

But take history into the equation, and it means a different thing. Strangers think it's acceptable to tease you over your literal identity, and that is not okay.

We've been falsely perceived as uneducated thieves through the media for years, and when you mock our accent you feed into that idea. We might not talk as fluently as southerners either, in that most of us have regional slang entrenched in our vocabulary. But we're in uni just like you, and we're a strong group of people who are always going to defend ourselves because we've been beaten down by others (hint hint, Thatcher.)

Spotted – greedy thieving Scouser shoplifting in the arcade

I've had people hear my accent and joke about me being a thief and a cheat when playing a fucking board game. One of my friends from Widnes spoke in a Scouse accent and got scowled at in a pub. All my Scouse friends at uni have had glares and been laughed at in tutorials – it's really fucking invalidating.

Because look at the bigger picture – it's harder for us, and Northerners in general, to get jobs because there's a perception of us as less intelligent and less cultured simply because of our voices and origins. It might be all shits and giggles to someone in passing, but it feeds into a general insecurity that some people just can't handle.

Look at us, we're harmless really

What's worse? A lot of the time we'll play along, even make jokes about ourselves. But we shouldn't just because they find it funny – because whilst it might be funny at the time, it affects the bigger picture. We want to feel like we fit in despite academia being dominated by a certain group of people. For some people with an accent like mine, it can sometimes just be isolating.

So next time a stranger goes to ask me to say things at a flat party, don't be surprised when I tell them to fuck off in the strongest Scouse accent I can.