An English teacher in Taiwan has deviated from the textbooks to give his pupils a shot at mastering one of the UK’s most iconic accents: Scouse.
Adam-John Whittaker taught his school pupils to say a range of typical Liverpudlian phrases to give them a proper insight into North West England’s regional dialect.
The 27-year-old from Kirkdale asked his class of four to six-year-olds to repeat a number of words such as ‘sound’ and ‘ay’ in his natural accent.
He also taught them a number of local Liverpudlian phrases, including ‘swerve it’, ‘What’s ‘appenin?’ and ‘now den’.
Mr Whittaker, who has been teaching abroad for five months, captured his pupil’s efforts on video and shared it on Facebook.
The footage shows the children relaying the phrases back to Mr Whittaker in their best Scouse impressions to comical effect.
English teacher Adam-John Whittaker taught his Taiwanese students how to do a Scouse accent
The Liverpudlian asked his class of four to six-year-olds to mimic him in saying some typical Scouse words such as ‘sound’ and ‘ay’
‘Over here the parents love videos of what the kids are up to in school and they are besotted with the Scouse accent, so it was only fitting that I did a master class in it,’ Mr Whittaker told the Liverpool Echo.
‘I’ve told them they are famous in Liverpool so now they keep saying “Mr Adam take my picture and show your mama”. I think they think my ma made them famous.’
Mr Whittaker’s unorthodox lesson has received 78,000 views and more than a thousand shares since it was uploaded.
Mr Whittaker recorded his class’s efforts and shared the video with their parents and Facebook
‘The kids are delighted,’ he said.
‘I’ve had so many amazing lovely messages saying it has put a smile on peoples faces’ which to be honest was the main reason I put it on myself.
He noted that the children have also developed a passion of some of Liverpool’s other famous exports, including music, and especially Rebecca Ferguson’s songs.
‘All you hear them singing now is ‘I hope, I hope, I hope’ – I literally love it.
‘I feel like I am teaching them about our city, so one day, when they are older, they will say ‘I learnt English from a Scouser!’