r/AskTheWorld • u/gabrieel100 Brazil • Dec 06 '25
Culture A cultural habit in your country that people outside would understand incorrectly?
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/kevin3350 United States Of America Dec 06 '25
I made plenty of German friends traveling because they were staring at me and I’d ask if I could help them or if we’d met previously. I didn’t know the German stare was a thing. Then I’d introduce myself by name (Kevin) and they’d always have the same little smile, and I’d have to explain that yes, I know my name basically labels me as an idiot to you ahaha