Pernille Rudlin

Cultural mongrel

I used to get teased at school for saying 'Pernilleit'sDanish' too much. My mother was born in Denmark, but now has British citizenship, and lives in France. Actually our Danish ancestors originally came from Estonia. We (my mother, stepfather and I) lived in Japan when I was 6 to 11 years old. I went to a Japanese school and got stared at and poked for having fair hair and blue eyes until everyone got bored and I got a shock when I caught sight of myself in a mirror from time to time, wondering who that weird looking person was. But I ended up with fluent Japanese and an enduring set of Japanese cultural values and love of Japanese food. I lived in Japan again when I was 18 and again from the ages of 26 to 30. I now run my own business, providing, amongst other things, intercultural communications training.