Asia.

Sometimes in Singapore, do you feel like a stranger? Everyone on the streets and public transport speak in strange languages. Hokkien Sri Lankan Tamil Mandarin Teochew Indonesian. Just not English.

Traditional Asian culture is rule based. You do this, you do not do that. It gives you no clues to how you should live your life responsibly. Respect your parents, because you're supposed to! Don't cheat, because you're not supposed to!

But bring in complicated or modern ethical issues that aren't described in their rulebooks and all hell breaks loose. A pity their rulebook doesn't tell them to live responsibly. Asians are the most prolific intellectual property thieves and the most cruel perpetrators of unfair labour practices, for example.

Even in bus queues, you'd find that those who try to beat the queue almost always one of those traditional types who speak in some Asian language. They're the ones who let their children make a din in public. Personally, as a kid, my parents made it clear to me that I must behave in public, and they really did enforce that. I guess they don't do that in traditional Asian culture.

On the escalators yesterday, I found it both sad and amusing that almost all of those who were standing on the wrong side of the escalator were speaking loudly in some Asian language or another. Those who stood on the correct side spoke softly in polite English.

I don't think I need to elaborate why I shun traditional Asian culture and languages.

It's not even my heritage. My parents, my uncles, my aunts, my cousins and literally everyone in my extended family are polite modern people who speak in English.