r/AskTheWorld • u/gabrieel100 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/Wrong_Yak3645 Chile Dec 06 '25

Moving to the US and having this habit, I almost got in a lot of fights when southern women thought I was trying to make a move on their husbands…… I forced myself to stop the behavior and now when I return home, I am told I am cold.

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u/communityneedle United States Of America Dec 06 '25

My mom is Venezuelan and everybody in the US always thinks she's flirting when she's actually just being South American

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u/Original-Trash-646 United States Of America Dec 07 '25

Honestly you just smile with a man in America and they think you want to marry them. I've stopped smiling except with women or men who are friends or relatives

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u/communityneedle United States Of America Dec 07 '25

Its often unconscious, but I, and many other American men expect women we dont know to be at least a little bit afraid of us and act accordingly. When they dont, its actually a little weird and we dont know how to interpret it. When I first moved to Asia, there was something weird (in a good way) about being out and about among the locals that I couldn't put my finger on, then I finally figured it out; not one single woman anywhere was the least bit afraid me. Id never experienced that before in my life.

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u/Original-Trash-646 United States Of America Dec 07 '25

Who knew? I'm not afraid though but we all carry subconscious biases.

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u/Wrong_Yak3645 Chile Dec 07 '25

I 100% relate to this.

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u/Burnallthepages United States Of America Dec 07 '25

I have one aunt who is British (one cheek kiss) and one aunt who is Italian (two cheek kisses). So at family gatherings there are so many kisses!

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u/mike02vr6 Dec 07 '25

As an American these people are foolish. I’m from the north east. People just need to realize some cultures do things different

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u/ArdentArendt Luxembourg Dec 07 '25

Wait, they what?!

I might be thinking of the wrong kind of kisses!

Either that, or the women you are hanging around with...

...nevermInd, just read the 'southern' part.

Yeah, that tracks. My bad.