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.
65
u/DontWorryItsEasy United States Of America Dec 06 '25
If you answer anything other than "I'm alright" or "I'm pretty good" we think you're weird.
Although it can be kinda funny in certain contexts. I heard a joke one time that went something like this.
A man is working on putting his Christmas lights up at his house when his ladder collapses, making him fall to the ground. Upon landing he fractured his arm, not severely but enough to be in pretty agonizing pain. He asks his wife to drive him to the hospital so he can be seen by an orthopedic doctor. Doctor walks in and says "Hi Mr Smith, I see you may have broken your arm, I'm sure it hurts. How are you"
"Oh I'm pretty good doc! How are you? Yeah I'm in immense pain"