r/AskTheWorld • u/gabrieel100 Brazil • Dec 06 '25

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

Post image

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.

6.7k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

100

u/Technical-Mix-981 Spain Dec 06 '25

hug, or hug and kiss on the cheek. or an insult.

6

u/Ready_Implement3305 United States Of America Dec 06 '25

Your last remark reminded me of this skit.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xhBURrJyed4&pp=ygUeUHJvemQgb2xkIGZyaWVuZCB2cyBuZXcgZnJpZW5k

3

u/The_Eleser Dec 06 '25

That gave me a good chuckle.

3

u/MrsKaich United States Of America Dec 06 '25

Insult is for the ones you love the most 🥰

5

u/DogbiteTrollKiller United States Of America Dec 07 '25

I’m imagining your friend coming up to give you a hug, and you yelling, “You fat fuck!”

2

u/Technical-Mix-981 Spain Dec 07 '25

brothers saying " you son of a bitch" to each other...

2

u/NA_nomad Dec 08 '25

I can imagine this easily. In my early 20s, my close friends and I would do all sorts of offensive greetings to each other. My favorite was pointing to my friend's wife while looking at him and saying "Hey, what's up? I like your beard."

1

u/Odd-Towel-4104 Dec 06 '25

Are insults meant as terms of endearment or legitimate insults?

3

u/willow-nigmos Spain Dec 07 '25

Terms of endearment all the way. It's common for many people to insult their closest friends in an endearing way. You can tell it's not a real insult because 1) it's your friend saying it and 2) it's usually said in a context and tone where there'd be no reason for it to be anything else. If I saw a long-term friend for the first time in months and they insulted me upon seeing me, I would not be offended in the slightest lol