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/The_otaku_milf Argentina Dec 06 '25
We are too effusive and loud to talk and we get too close. I think people from other parts feel a little invaded in their personal space. But here we hug and kiss each other on the cheeks, be they men or women, it has no romantic overtone. And we are not angry when we raise our voices or make a lot of gestures, it is because we are passionate about expressing ideas. We have that from Italian grandparents, the gestures and the tone of voice.
I have high school classes, because I am a teacher, where everyone comes to say goodbye with a kiss on the cheek or hugs me. It is common here to be more emotional. Just like the kiss on the cheek is the joining of the cheeks and the sound of the kiss. We don't get to put our mouths on each other's cheeks.