Did We Mention This Trip Is Free?

We've been here in Seoul for about two days. But it only took us five minutes to realize just how much more polite and generous everyone is here than in the United States.

In Japan and in Korea, every single employee of every company makes extra effort to help you along. It's as if they would be fired if they stopped smiling. Also, everyone gives gifts -- and while it is traditionally customary to deny gifts to the point where you have no choice but to accept them, they really just shower tourists with presents.

At KBS -- Korea's biggest television network -- they gave us beautiful pens in cases after a lovely tour of the building and the state-run company's history. At the Chuson Ilbo, the country's largest newspaper with a 2 million circulation, we got 1GB USB drives and a print-out of the day's front pages with a photo of us and or names sprawled across the bottom where an ad would be.

But perhaps the most courteous show of appreciation came from a few Korean journalists and professors who dined with us last night. They bought all the food and round upon round upon round of drinks, until a few of us weren't sure what country we were in anymore.

Oh, and then they took us out to karaoke. Korean karaoke, by the way, is exactly what it sounds like, except a computer gives you a score after each song. Most of us did pretty well.

Two Korean grad students joined us for the day and showed us the ropes -- and then schooled us in karaoke. "Tell me, tell me, tell tell tell tell tell tell me."

I hope more people blog about this, because I think we all had pretty different experiences. Also there are some great photos of gifts available at the airport outside Tokyo. (Fake breast balls? You bet.)

Before I leave for breakfast, one more thing: Chosun is the biggest newspaper in Korea, and by far the top of the totem pole for aspiring journalists. We spoke with the editors and they told us they recruit some journalists straight out of the country's elite universities.

But what's weird is that we met one of their young-ish reporters at dinner, who writes about finance and economics. She told us when she applied for the position, the editors didn't ask her for even one clip. They judge their reporters by a number of things, among them English-speaking abilities and school grades, because that shows professionalism.

What a contrast between that and what it's like in the United States, where our futures as reporters are almost entirely defined by the clips we get as interns before we graduate.