“I live in Uttara, which is in the far north of Dhaka, quite close to the airport. It's a fairly planned area, laid out in numbered sectors, so it feels a bit more organised than the older parts of the city.”

“Pretty much everything I need, really. There are a couple of good supermarkets, a hospital, several schools and, more recently, a metro station, which has made getting into the centre so much easier.”

“Enormously. When we moved there about twelve years ago, there were still empty plots of land everywhere, but almost all of them have been built on since then, so it's far busier and noisier than it used to be.”

“On the whole, yes. The streets are a bit quieter than in central Dhaka and there are a few small parks, although I do think the area needs more safe places for children to play outdoors.”

“Yes, I learned when I was quite small, in the pond behind my uncle's house. I wouldn't call myself a strong swimmer, but I'm confident enough in the water.”

“In villages, most people swim in ponds and rivers, often from childhood. In the cities it's much harder, because there are very few public pools, so swimming tends to be limited to hotels and private clubs.”

“Absolutely. In a country with so many rivers and so much flooding, being able to swim can genuinely save lives, so I think it should be taught at every primary school.”

“Mostly work emails — updates for my manager, or replies to clients about invoices. I hardly ever email friends, because we just use messaging apps for that.”

“Work emails, yes — I try to reply within a few hours. Personal ones are a different story, though; some of them sit in my inbox for weeks before I get round to them.”

“Not as easy as people think. You have to be clear and polite at the same time, and it's surprisingly easy to sound rude when the other person can't hear your tone of voice.”

“For work, I suspect they will, because it's such a convenient way to keep a written record. But for anything personal, I think it'll have almost completely disappeared by then.”

“Mostly when they're stuck somewhere together — on a long bus ride, in a queue at the bank, or in a waiting room. People here are generally quite chatty, so it's normal to ask someone where they're from or comment on the traffic. In more formal settings, like offices, people tend to be more reserved until they've been properly introduced. And of course, people ask strangers for directions all the time, because addresses here can be quite hard to find.”

“In my experience, yes, but I don't think city people are less kind — they're just busier and more cautious. In a small town, a stranger stands out, so people are curious and often very welcoming. In a city of millions, you pass thousands of strangers a day, so you simply can't stop and talk to everyone, and people learn to keep to themselves for safety. Big cities also attract people from everywhere, so there's less of a shared sense of community.”

“I think the basic message is sensible, because young children can't judge who is safe. But I'm not sure “never talk to strangers” is the best way to put it, since a child who's lost may need to ask a stranger for help. It's probably better to teach them who to approach — a police officer, a shopkeeper, a parent with children — and never to go anywhere with someone they don't know.”

“Personality is the obvious answer — outgoing people seem to enjoy meeting someone new, while shy people worry about saying the wrong thing or being judged. But I think experience matters just as much. People whose jobs involve dealing with the public, like salespeople or nurses, get so much practice that it becomes second nature. Upbringing plays a part too: children who grow up watching their parents chat easily to shopkeepers and neighbours tend to see it as normal. So in a way, it's a skill that improves the more you use it.”

“I think the manners themselves have changed more than the level of politeness. Older people tend to value formal signs of respect, like standing up when an elder enters the room or using very respectful forms of address. Younger people are often more casual in those ways, but in my experience they're just as considerate — they're often more careful about things like not making jokes that might offend someone, or including people who might otherwise feel left out.”

“Ideally, it's a shared responsibility. Parents are the first and most important teachers of manners, because children copy what they see at home. But schools have a role too, since that's where children learn to get along with people from very different backgrounds, which home can't always teach. Teachers also set an example through the way they treat students. So I'd say parents lay the foundation, and schools reinforce it and add the social side.”

“They're already changing, I think. Things that didn't exist twenty years ago now have their own rules — for instance, it's considered rude in many places to check your phone during a meal, or to leave a message unanswered for days. I'd expect more of these new rules to appear as technology develops, although the basic idea behind politeness, which is showing consideration for others, probably won't change at all, whatever devices we happen to be using.”