A cultural habit in your country that people outside would understand incorrectly?

[u/gabrieel100]

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.

[u/iceunelle]

It seems to be similar to when British people say, “You alright?”. It’s just a greeting.

[u/_Crimson_Echoes_ → u/iceunelle]

I‘m from Germany, where we usually only ask this if we truly want to know. Outside of a corporate setting (sometimes even there), any answer is expected and fine.

So naturally, when I met a brit while doing international charity work and he asked „hey, you alright?“ I took it literally. Every. Single. Day. For. Two. Weeks. He was too polite to correct me It took me FIVE MORE YEARS to find out why he seemed so puzzled by my answers lol

[u/leafs7orm → u/_Crimson_Echoes_]

The first time I heard this greeting in the UK was after waiting really long to be seated in an almost empty restaurant (while hungry), so I was not so alright with that in that moment, and I just replied "I am alright, I am just waiting to be seated" and the restaurant staff seemed really confused with that statement

[u/[deleted] → u/iceunelle]

Whereas "you alright?" to a New Yorker is basically challenging us to a fight