I always wanted to study at Oxford and/or Cambridge, but I was born and raised in the North East region of England. I always suspected I would have little chance of passing the entrance interviews if I spoke like my classmates. Even from a young age, the prejudice from ‘down south’ was palpable.
Therefore, I changed my speech to sound southern (and became the linguistic black sheep of the family). In my home town, I was regarded a ‘foreigner’ for my whole childhood. ‘Are you from London?’, someone from school asked me. Yet I was only a couple of miles from my birthplace, where I had loved my whole life.
Changing my accent seemed to work, though: I got my Oxbridge degree and managed to fit in (unlike other with stronger regional accents who, sadly, reported that it was a struggle).
I heard only one example of a North East accent while I was down there: a construction worker.