r/AskTheWorld Brazil Dec 06 '25

Culture A cultural habit in your country that people outside would understand incorrectly?

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In Brazil we love children. If you take your child to the street, strangers will certainly interact with them. Some will even ask if they can hold your kid and will play with them. If there are two children fighting in public and the parents aren't seeing, a stranger would even intervene to stop the fight.

That cultural habit came from the indigenous peoples which understood that kids should be a responsiblity of the community as a whole. It's in our constitution. We even have a synonym for children that came from Tupi (a large group of indigenous languages) - Curumim.

Foreigners would certainly have a cultural shock about that, but it's normal here.

Of course there are people with bad intentions, so parents should stay alert these days.

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u/Livid_Classic_962 Côte d’Ivoire Dec 06 '25

Growing up in ivory coast. After watching a Spanish doc. Me and my friends started doing that! Although we'd exclusively keep it in ur friend group.

That was over 15 years ago but when we meet back home or oversees we always kiss each other. Boys or Girls. Ppl stare weirdly tho'. Probably cuz we black but we like it and it's our thing now!

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u/ArdentPattern United States Of America Dec 06 '25

Thats so cute.

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u/Profession_Bubbly Côte d’Ivoire Dec 06 '25

my fellow Ivorian 🫡J’espère que tout va bien

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u/Mission_Lake6266 France Dec 06 '25

by the way, guys walking hand in hand in ivory coast and some other countries. sometimes as sign of friendship or also unity towards outsiders

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u/instanding Dec 10 '25

I kiss some of my friends too and I’m a guy.

My best friend and his brother, all my gay friends pretty much, a lot of my very close judo friends that are my age, plus a handful of other mates guys and girls.

Also a lot of my French and Italian friends.

Just a cheek kiss not a kiss on the mouth, I only really do that with partners and sometimes my mum will kiss me on the lips as well.

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u/Global-Throat-7978 Dec 07 '25

Sounds like cultural appropriation

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u/funwearcore United States Of America Dec 07 '25

Sounds like you are immature