I found this article on a website I like to read, and it had a list of things other countries admire about US citizens. What was cool is that since being here I've heard people of other nationalities say a lot of these things about us.
The biggest one I've noticed that is a cultural thing, and not a universal thing like I originally thought was #3:
We’re a nation of dreamers
Americans (still) dare to dream. This goes with what some other people said: If you fall, you get up and go on. There is not such a great social stigma associated with failure and the notion that it’s a learning experience is much more pronounced.
In China, trial and error is not an option. This creates so much pressure on the students. Our mentality of "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" or "If at first you don't succeed...", "A for effort!" and basically any other saying about working hard and trying again do not translate in their culture. You do it perfect or don't do it at all. That isn't an unknown concept in America, but we still give more respect for those who try and fail, than those who don't try at all. That's not necessarily the case here.
So while America has its weaknesses, our culture has some pretty great positives, too :)
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