一段關於國際性、特權與自我定位的對話，從斯德哥爾摩開始，在倫敦完成。
「你是什麼時候意識到自己的國際化的？」我問A。「你知道你有真的很不一般的國際經歷吧？」
自從認識他以來我只知道一口標準美式口音的他從小唸國際學校，大學在斯德哥爾摩唸，之後在馬來西亞工作了幾年後搬到倫敦。來斯德哥爾摩這次是我第一次拼湊出瑞典在他整個人生中的軸線。原來18歲到瑞典唸大學前他已經先到這唸了兩年的boarding school，畢業後在電信公司當了一年的客服，打下他瑞典口語的基礎。
「我一直都知道自己是privileged的，我媽再嫁的瑞典爸爸的確完全改變了我的人生。」他說。「從小我每年夏天都在斯德哥爾摩度過，尤其看著我的表兄弟姐妹，我一直都知道我們之間的不同。」
「但真的要說對於internationalness的意識，應該是自從搬到倫敦以後吧。在馬來西亞時，我一直都是『the cool kid』，到了倫敦就像從魚池被放到大海，但我發現 - 即使在倫敦，我依然還是特別的。」
倫敦就是這樣一座城市。它不只國際化，而是把「世界的不同」濃縮在同一個空間裡，讓你第一次有了可以丈量自己的光譜。你會在最平凡的對話裡撞見驚人的背景，在看似普通的辦公室裡遇見各種極端不同的人生軸線。當這些差異以如此近距離、如此密集的方式在你眼前展開時，你會突然意識到，原來世界的可能性這麼廣，而你所處的位置，你的存在、你的特別，也在這座城市裡被重新標註了一次。
在倫敦，你不只是遇見別人，更是重新校準自己；倫敦讓人認識世界，更讓人認識，自己在世界裡的位置。
When the world is condensed into a single city, London allows you to see and re-label yourself.
“When did you first become aware of your own internationalness?” I asked A. “You know you’ve had a really unusual international upbringing, right?”
Ever since I met A, all I knew was that he spoke with a perfect American accent, went to an international school growing up, studied in Stockholm for university, then worked in Malaysia for a few years before moving to London. Coming to Stockholm this time was the first moment I finally pieced together how Sweden fit into the arc of his life. It turns out that before moving to Sweden for university at 18, he had already spent two years at a boarding school here, and after graduating, worked a year in customer service at a telecom company - laying the foundation for his spoken Swedish.
“I’ve always known I was privileged. My mom remarrying my Swedish stepdad completely changed my life,” he said. “Growing up, I spent every summer in Stockholm, and especially when I looked at my cousins, I always knew how different we were.”
“But if you’re asking when I became aware of my internationalness, I’d say it was after moving to London. In Malaysia, I was always ‘the cool kid.’ But in London, it was like being released from a fishpond into the ocean - yet even there, I realized I was still special.”
That’s exactly what London is. It’s not just international - it’s a city where the world’s differences get compressed into one shared space, giving you, for the first time, a spectrum against which you can measure yourself. You stumble into astonishing backgrounds through the most ordinary conversations; in what looks like a typical office, you meet people whose life trajectories couldn’t be further apart. When these differences unfold before you at such close range and in such density, you suddenly realize how wide the world’s possibilities truly are - and that your place in it, your existence, your distinctiveness, gets re-tagged in this city.
In London, you don’t just meet others - you recalibrate yourself. London helps you understand the world, but even more, it helps you understand where you stand within it.
