I don't know about your contacts, but I'll say something about the step you'll take after getting school contact information from those recruiters.

There are two schools of thought about that step, really. Some believe you should contact the schools, sign a contract based on what others tell you, and then fly to SK all set to go to work. This adds to your security, but it may present a problem if you land at your new digs and discover you don't like it for some reason.

Enter the "other" school of thought.

The other school advises one to simply buy a plane ticket to SK, fly there, get a tourist visa (30 days), and just look around. While you're looking, you can still get contact information from recruiters via email cafes. After you get that information, you can go check out the schools, their teachers, their students, where you'll live, the cities/towns, that sort of thing, in person. If you like what you see and like what's in the contract, you can then sign it and teach away.

I favor going to SK and checking everything out first. This is because I went the sign-the-contract- now, go-to-the-school-tomorrow path once. Never again. Now I know. Yeap, the reality of life means it just makes more sense, given the prevalence of liars in TEFL, to go to a school and inspect it throughly before signing any contract.

I signed a contract at a Hogwan in Changwon, flew there, and discovered my new boss was a fibber. Unfortunately, getting out of the contract was a big problem. He paid for my plane ticket, which meant I was 'stuck' at that particular school unless I got a formal release (something required by the government in South Korea) from the contract. A formal release meant reimbursing the fibber for the plane ticket he provided, which was something I wasn't going to do. So I flew outta there instead. This was in July of 2005. I'm still under contract there, and I won't be released from that obligation until July 2006, meaning I won't be able to work in SK again until then.

Yeah, I shoulda flown to Chiangwon first and checked that place out before signing the contract. I wouldn't have liked it, no. But that wouldn't have been a problem, I discovered after getting to Chiangwon. It would have been so easy to fly there on my own, find a candidate school (or even five more if I would have wanted), and gone to work in mere days. I would have even gotten a reimbursement on my air fare to go there, more than likely. No, I didn't have to settle. I could have found a better place to work easily. Too bad I had already signed a contract.

Don't shoot yourself in the foot by signing a contract before checking out your new digs. You'll be glad you held out. If you sign before going, get ready for a possible (expensive) letdown.