Chinese apps on WW_2.20.40.97 firmware from Asus

Hi all,

I recently received a second hand Z00AD (2GB / 32GB, 1.83Ghz) which I believe was purchased from China (it has a Chinese manual & charger). It was running a WW firmware when I first received it, which OTAed up to 2.20.40.97 (WW) when I got it out of the box.

I wasn't too surprised that the phone came with a lot of Chinese apps built into the firmware - e.g. a Chinese game store, lots of links to Yahoo China & a couple of other Chinese apps - and also defaulted to the Chinese language on a factory reset (but could be changed to English easily enough).

I figured that if I downloaded the latest full version of WW_2.20.40.97 from Asus' website, adb sideloaded it & did a factory reset in Recovery that I would lose all the Chinese apps & perhaps default to English. To my surprise, however, all the Chinese apps remained!

I downloaded the firmware from here:

https://www.asus.com/Phone/ZenFone_2...Desk_Download/

My questions are:

1. Does flashing WW_2.20.40.97 default to the Chinese language & come preloaded with Chinese apps on all devices?
2. If it does, are there official firmwares that do not come with Chinese apps?
3. If it doesn't then why is this happening on my phone & is there a way to modify my device to behave like a worldwide phone without Chinese apps?
4. Is it possible to default the language to English after a factory reset?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

Mike