@dansup As an European I can tell you I really don't mind getting compliments and find myself that we should praise the people around us more.

I think the problem with compliments for us often lies more in fact that we give compliments to close people and we get suspicious when a stranger (who doesn't know anything about us) compliments us. Especially from US Americans where terms like "awesome" and "great" in conversations feels overused and this devalues the compliment itself for us.