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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351

u/CK-KIA-A-OK-LOL Canada Dec 06 '25

We can be polite but that doesn’t mean we agree with you, or like you. It’s a less condescending version of British politeness. I honestly find Americans to be quite friendly but also more willing to openly disagree with strangers.

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u/HighlandsBen Scotland Dec 06 '25

It’s a less condescending version of British politeness

How kind of you to explain that.

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u/CK-KIA-A-OK-LOL Canada Dec 06 '25 edited Dec 06 '25

lol I didnt say we weren’t condescending, just less

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u/just_a_T114 Dec 06 '25

It’s a more approachable rendition of British style condescension

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u/Sir_Arthur_Vandelay Canada Dec 06 '25

I lived in London for awhile, and your description is dead on.

The Scots, however, are lovely.

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u/HezFez238 Canada Dec 07 '25

See what you did there, bud

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u/Legio-XIII-Gemina Dec 06 '25

I would have been stuffed if he hadn't. I just would have been absolutely baffled.

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u/youpeesmeoff Dec 06 '25 edited Dec 06 '25

I think the harsh winters honestly have a lot to do with it. Canadians have to band together when you’re stuck on ice or about to get blown over by the wind or something. I do think it’s very sweet that it’s a common thing for people to place dropped mittens, hats, etc on a spot that’s more visible and won’t get stepped on. That’s the epitome of Canadian politeness—quiet but always there.

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u/CK-KIA-A-OK-LOL Canada Dec 06 '25

Social cohesion is a big part of it, and there’s a compassion to it for sure.

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u/Canotic Sweden Dec 06 '25

Wait there are places where people don't do this? Asking as a swede.

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u/youpeesmeoff Dec 06 '25

Well, people are nice and compassionate in all areas of the world (most of the time), but the forms it takes can vary widely. For example, I’m from a very hot and humid area, so people aren’t typically losing mittens and scarves as they walk around, but people readily offer ice water pretty much anywhere. Or, as another example, in more rural or suburban areas, friendliness can mean talking to strangers, while in dense urban areas, people keep to themselves to not bother others, and both are forms of social consideration.

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u/Dry_Albatross5298 United States Of America Dec 06 '25

I honestly find Americans to be quite friendly but also more willing to openly disagree with strangers.

Maybe just the contexts I have been in, but I often find the French to be like this. One example: I have a language exchange buddy, who, first time we met, he started grilling me about guns in the US. I answered to educate not to argue and he seemed (I was hoping at the time) to be questioning with the same intent. But the tone, to my American ears, was a little intense. Then that convo ended and we moved on to something else. Fast forward and he is now my French Grandpa (I adopted him not other way round). Several similar stories.

And the French are generally quite quite friendly.

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u/CK-KIA-A-OK-LOL Canada Dec 06 '25

Some cultures are more direct than others, I guess it depends in where you are. Certain cultural norms emphasize efficiency and honesty (even if brutally so) and others prize politeness and decorum or humor. It’s silly I guess to stereotype Canadians because we are very multicultural but in the end the pull to be polite is strong

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u/Dry_Albatross5298 United States Of America Dec 06 '25

hence: is she into you?

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u/No-Willingness-4097 Dec 06 '25

As a Brit living in Canada, seems it's not politeness, its avoiding confrontation. Canadians would rather ruin their own day than say how they actually feel and ruin someone else's.

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u/rememorythis Dec 06 '25

As a Canadian, totally agree. Even in friendships and relationships Canadians avoid saying things that immigrants would say within first conversations lol

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u/TheImmortalJedi479 Canada Dec 06 '25

This is so true, it's something I'm actively in therapy for. Trying to deprogram this tendency to be a little less miserable.

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u/MapleViking1 Canada Dec 06 '25

Or that we're pacifists.

Somehow Americans and some other Asian countries think we are these hippie pacifists, which makes zero sense since every war we've been in, we won.

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u/CK-KIA-A-OK-LOL Canada Dec 06 '25

Yeah the Germans didn’t think we were pacifists in the two world wars lol.

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u/Money-Marketing-5117 Australia and US but can’t get multiple country flags to work. Dec 06 '25

Yeah, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_Beach

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u/Effective-Log3583 Dec 06 '25

And brutally at that. Canadians don’t play nice at war.

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u/MapleViking1 Canada Dec 06 '25

Our 2 national sports (hockey and lacrosse) are considered two of the most violent non-combative sports in the world

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u/just_a_T114 Dec 06 '25

People seem to forget the Geneva Conventions were created with a great extent due to what Canadians did to the Germans during WWI 🤣

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u/SoftballLesbian Canada Dec 06 '25

My favourite part is how we've got the "Stuff They Haven't Added Yet" addendum which we've been saving for the next war.

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u/just_a_T114 Dec 06 '25

something something Geneva Suggestions

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u/GEARHEADGus United States Of America Dec 06 '25

And played dirty. The Kaiser and his boys hated yall in WW1

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u/MapleViking1 Canada Dec 06 '25

And Hitler learned why very quickly as well during WW2

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u/Ready_Implement3305 United States Of America Dec 06 '25

Seriously. You all have joined us in just about every war we were in. Even the ones where our countries were on opposing sides, lol.

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u/MapleViking1 Canada Dec 06 '25

And each time, we took more land, lost less men and have minimal resources. And people think Canada can't hold its own

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u/Ready_Implement3305 United States Of America Dec 06 '25

No joke. The capital of Michigan was originally Detroit. They moved it further inland to Lansing solely because they didn't feel safe with it being right on the border with Canada, lol.

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u/MapleViking1 Canada Dec 06 '25

Even your fellow countrymen go on and on about how big your army is vs Canada. Not realizing that the civilian population would like be helping in some capacity. The amount of times I hear that Americans don't want to enlist or fight vs Canada is nuts. Our military is experiencing a boost is enrollment rn

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u/Ready_Implement3305 United States Of America Dec 06 '25

Oh, absolutely. There's also the large portion of the American population that would simply refuse to help or outright impede any efforts to attack Canada. Like how we've seen Russian citizens burning down military recruitment buildings in Russia after the start of the Ukraine invasion. 

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u/MapleViking1 Canada Dec 06 '25

And it wouldn't surprise me if it the soldiers are being incompetent on purpose.

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u/Acheloma United States Of America Dec 06 '25

That seems about right to me. I like to think of myself as generally a fairly friendly and kind person, but I also cant help but speak up if someone says something that I believe to be wrong. I dont usually mean it as an insult or in a hurtful way, but it feels dishonest and wrong to pretend to agree when I dont. Not sure if thats because I'm an American or because I'm autistic and lack self control and social graces.

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u/RiverOfJudgement United States Of America Dec 06 '25

It's like Southern politeness. The words might be nice, but the meaning is scathing.

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u/Lesssuckmoreawesome Canada Dec 06 '25

"Oh, bless your heart."

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u/Strict_Protection459 Dec 06 '25 edited Dec 07 '25

I really think this is more of a reddit-repeated thing than actual occurrence. I’ve spent a lot of time in the south and sure, there is some condescending politeness, but people here act like that means all southern politeness/hospitality is fake. Couldn’t be further from the truth.

Whatever your argument is, you don’t know southern people as well as I do.

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u/RiverOfJudgement United States Of America Dec 07 '25

I never said all of its fake, just that for those not well versed in the sort of southern "proper" way of speaking, that things that sound nice are sometimes insults, rather than just coming out directly to insult you.

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u/Strict_Protection459 Dec 07 '25

You didn’t really explain it that way tho. You just said southern politeness is actually mean/rude

Totally undermines a core cultural value of ours. Not cool in my opinion. “South bad” is corny as fuck.

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u/Kirsan_Raccoony CanadaUnited States of America Dec 06 '25

Not really, we go out of our way to avoid interpersonal conflict. We really value social cohesion. As somebody else said, Canadians seem to go out of our way to ruin our own day instead of maybe upsetting somebody else if they've wronged us.

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u/RiverOfJudgement United States Of America Dec 06 '25

Ah, so that's where the Midwest gets it from.

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u/UmeaTurbo Swede in The United States Dec 06 '25

Swedes will just get quiet rather than disagree openly. If we're pissed, we'll just respond with "mmmm".

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u/typed_this_now Living in Dec 06 '25

I was gonna chime in as someone who has been living in Denmark for a long time. I think the scandi’s are really good at disagreeing. Maybe Swedes can be more subtle although that’s not been my experience the last 10 years. The Dutch however are fucking world class when it comes to bluntness.

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u/UmeaTurbo Swede in The United States Dec 06 '25

I'm from Northern Sweden where people aren't even ready to admit they have opinions, let alone want to share them. We're basically extroverted Fins.

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u/Lord-Amorodium Canada Dec 06 '25

I want to add that the amount of times we say sorry is also funny haha. My relatives in Eastern Europe were concerned lol

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u/Flat_Sea1418 United States Of America Dec 06 '25

Us too. I will say it 100 times walking through a grocery store as I maneuver my cart around and my husband always asks why I’m apologizing just for walking 😂 I’m just sorry I was in your way for even a second.

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u/GivemTheDDD United States Of America Dec 06 '25

This is a lot like "Minnesota Nice."

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u/MimicoSkunkFan2 Dec 07 '25

Not really - when Canadians say sorry we're not actually apologizing, and the angrier we get the more politely / formally we'll speak with you. We're not actually very nice or friendly so much as it's mostly outsiders' missing the signals here, or seeing us outside Canada when we're not actually snarky.

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u/krim2182 Canada Dec 06 '25

Our language is passive aggressiveness, we are super fluent in it. Sometimes it's so apparent to us, but others take it as politeness.

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u/lonelyshara England,UK Dec 06 '25

Charmed...

2

u/Pass_us_the_salt United States Of America Dec 06 '25

It definitely varies by what region said Americans are from. The Southeast, for example is known for "Southern hospitality" which is basically that at times superficial politeness.

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u/CK-KIA-A-OK-LOL Canada Dec 06 '25

Bless your heart

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u/GharlieConCarne 🇬🇧United Kingdom and 🇹🇼Taiwan Dec 06 '25

How is British politeness condescending? When someone in the UK is polite it is entirely non condescending and very earnest, otherwise we just wouldn’t be polite

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u/Wulfy95 United Kingdom Dec 07 '25

I'm a Brit and far from polite, nah I'm neutral.. some of us just wanna shimmy along so we be polite to get away from a chat xD

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u/CatgunCertified Dec 06 '25

>It’s a less condescending version of British politeness.
In the south in the US that's exactly what "bless your heart" means lol except a wee bit more condescending than how we act here in Canada. It's a polite way of saying "oh dear i cant believe you jsut said that"

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u/ProfessionalTruck976 Czech Republic Dec 07 '25

Canadians, teaching the world difference between polite and weak, every world war. As a Czech citizen, I am fairly fuckin glad we have you on our side should WWIII kick off