Tamara, Stephen, Matthew, Kayleigh, Nichole and Leigh are students at Birkenhead Sixth Form College. The students discuss why they feel different to counterparts on the other side of the River Mersey and the words they think describe them best from ‘Wools’ to ‘plastic scousers’.
The students talk about the phrase Chav, how it first became popular at their college, what they think it means and how they’d use the term in daily speech.
Nichole Rouse
Nichole Rouse – Student – Age 19
Scouse southern mix
"My family don't see me as a scouser....cos all my family ..well no my family do, but people round here don't cos both my parents are from Southampton. So when I ring my cousins they're like .. we can tell its you cos you've got a scouse accent ... but people round here think i've got quite a southern accent, so I'm sort of mix of everything. I say class and glass whereas everybody else says cla-ss and gla-ss. I'm getting better at saying the same way as up here but you don't realise but you do start to conform to what's around you."
Leigh Swanick
Leigh Swanick – Student – Age 17
Different over the water
"... in a way yeah, cos we're, we're not like, we're not like them in a way cos we're seperate aren't we we're from one side of the water from the other and like the accent is different and I hate bein compared to a scouser, cos if I wear my, like I'm wearing my Lacrose trackie today, if I went down town in this I get stared at by all the security guards but if I went down in jeans and shoes I wouldn't get stared at just because of what I'm wearing .... and what I sound like - so it is important to me..."
Ex-Dockers
John, Michael, Mark, Tony and John are all ex-dockers who spent most of their working lives in Liverpool’s dockland. After losing their jobs in 1995 the group opened a bar, The Casa in Liverpool city centre. The group are very passionate about Liverpool’s community spirit and the closeness of the people.
John, Michael, Mark, Tony and John
Having worked together on the docks the group have a shared history and recall the nicknames they used to call fellow workers in the ‘old days’.
Mark and Tony are very proud of their heritage and remember fondly their experiences of working with their friends. They have great memories of a shared era and were saddened when they lost their jobs in the mid 1990’s.
John Cowley
John Cowley – Educational Planner – Age 57
Mother was the focal point of the family
"The mother was the focal point of the family cos....when we were all kids all we seen was our mother and our aunties all the men were at uh the dock or away - alot of the men were away at sea in the 50's you know - a mean I was uh I mean I wrote a little poem it was alot of years ago called uh 'Living in skirts' that wasn't me I mean as a kid all you see was skirts you never seen any trousers you'd just seen skirts all day but you're father would come in about 8 o'clock - he'd had a few scoops from the dock you know and um and then after an hour I'd go to bed so you'd see ya father for bout an hour a day basically but you'd be with ya mother all the time you know and uh ... she's a lovely woman well all our mothers are lovely..."
