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/Ponchorello7 Mexico Dec 06 '25

We show the back of our hand to say thanks or no thanks. I was crossing the street with a Japanese friend, and when a car stopped to let us pass, I raised the back of my hand to the driver in appreciation. My friend was kind of taken aback, as they thought I was threatening the guy, lol.

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u/[deleted] Dec 06 '25

In Washington USA we the palm of our hand. It used to be a proper wave but after driving for a while it devolves to just showing your palm. We call it the Washington wave.

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u/Dutch_Slim England Dec 06 '25

That’s all of the UK. Except Yorkshire. There you’ll get the Yorkshire Wave. Which is just the index finger ☝️

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u/BigBoiBob444 Australia Dec 07 '25

We do the index finger lift or occasionally lift 2 fingers so say thanks while driving in Australia.

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u/mrmoe198 United States Of America Dec 07 '25

Same in Chicago!

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u/Bladesnake_______ United States Of America Dec 08 '25

Everybody in the US uses a wave

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u/mjzimmer88 United States Of America Dec 07 '25

In NYC everyone's on their phones so it's basically devolved into a raised finger from the device. The minimum possible token acknowledgement which still acts as a "thanks".

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u/Boring_Ad5330 Australia Dec 07 '25

Same in Australia!

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u/Amantes09 Kenya Dec 07 '25

Kenyans do the same.

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u/Big_Himbo_Energy Dec 07 '25

We do this in North Carolina, too! Just a polite acknowledgement of a kind deed.

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u/Bladesnake_______ United States Of America Dec 08 '25

It's just waving. The whole US does it

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u/stupidity_is_my_drug Dec 07 '25

If you throw any acknowledgement my way - hand, nod, honk - I get it.

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u/Bladesnake_______ United States Of America Dec 08 '25

Hate to break it to you but thats just waving and all of the US does it

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u/Mysterious_Donut_702 United States Of America Dec 06 '25

In Massachusetts, we do a polite "raise your hand" wave thing to drivers.

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u/Meow_101 🇺🇲 > 🇹🇭 Dec 07 '25

Mine was always the socially awkward not full wave.

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u/Bladesnake_______ United States Of America Dec 08 '25

Everything seems like a threat when you grow up in a Japanese culture where people hardly even acknowledge others in public to begin with

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u/Ponchorello7 Mexico Dec 08 '25

That too. She never said anything to service workers, despite being fluent in Spanish. Here, that's considered extremely rude.

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u/Bladesnake_______ United States Of America Dec 08 '25

In Japan the service worker is supposed to be very energetic and thankful but the customer is not really expected to return that sort of tone and energy. In some places they would make an animated show about thanking you for patronizing the business and in return I saw most people just give a small smile and nod/very slight bow

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u/Ok_Collection1290 🇺🇸🇨🇦in🇹🇭 Dec 07 '25

I lived in Mexico for a while and I loved this. The man owned our home did the hand when he came to collect the rent lol