Many countries where flying is not as accessible as it is in the US, the airlines have programs where they train you to fly. I know with BA you used to get about 250 hours, and then were flying (well keeping the seat warm on) 737, 320, or 757s. The pay was about $20K per year to start of with, and you could not fly long haul until you had over 1500 hours. You think that 250 hours is not very many, however the structure of the training is very different from the FAA gain your PPL, gain your Instrument, etc. It is all geared towards multi crew instrument flying.
I would definately be very cautious of some of the Asian Airlines, I doubt Cathy is bad, but I hear ones like JAL work you like slaves. And it is not a case of living there and working for a year, the program is designed to help out people from their country who very few have the opportunity to fly. I also believe if you quit before your 5 years are up, you have to reimburse some/most of the money they invested in you!