First days of teaching in Korea

We have taught classes for two days now, so I thought I would tell a little more about our academy, that is what the Korean students call our institution. When we have called it a school, they always correct us.
We teach students from about 8 years old to 16 or so. The kids go to a regular school in the morning, and then come to English + (the name of our academy) after that. I am still not sure how the Korean education system works, but it appears that the younger students get out of school first, and the older they are the longer they stay in school. So we start teaching at 3pm, and our first classes are the youngest students, about 8-10 years old. Our last classes of the night are from 8-9pm, and on Mondays I teach a 9-10pm class. The last classes of the day are the oldest students, 15-16 years old. My biggest class has only had about 8 students in it, I really like that. After teaching classes of 25-30 students, 8 students seems almost like one-on-one.
I like the variety of teaching so many different age groups, but each age has its different challenges. The youngest students barely speak English, so teaching them has much more interactive. I have found that drawing pictures on the board; and acting things out are effective strategies to help them understand what I am trying to teach them. The younger students have a much shorter attention span, if I don’t change pace every 5-10 minutes, I bore them to death. There are also many benefits of teaching younger kids: they are not shy about speaking English, they belt out at the top of their lungs any new word or phrase that I give them, they are so eager to learn. Another plus is that if they are getting restless I can always have them stand up and jump around and wave their arms to burn off some energy. They especially like it when I join them in this activity, to tell the truth, I like it as well. It helps me to burn off some energy, and to wake back up if I am starting to be boring.
The older students have a much better command of the English language; some of them can actually carry out a conversation. It is much harder to read the older kids. With the younger kids, I can always tell when they are confused, or lost. Their faces are so easy to read. On the other hand the older kids are much less animated, so sometimes I think they don’t understand, but they actually do. Other times, I think they do understand, but I have lost the whole class, they just sit there stone faced. It is much harder to gain the older students attention after I bore them. I have tried having them stand up and move around, but they are shy about dancing around the classroom. So I am still working on ways to regain the class’s interest after I lose it, does anyone have any suggestions about how to animate teenagers?
I have also discovered some important cultural differences that I have been blatantly ignoring. It is polite to take your shoes off when you enter a building here in Korea, that we knew. So we went and got sandals to wear at school. I had a hard time finding sandals big enough for me, but I found that if I took my socks off the sandals fit me alright. The first day I just wore my sandals, no socks. On Tuesday, Carol, she’s the assistant principal, and also a teacher, told Christina that in Korea it is rude for men to not wear socks. I am not sure why Carol told Christina because I was sitting right next to Christina. It must be another cultural thing. She did not think it was proper to tell me that I should wear socks, I don’t know. Then she told Christina that it is not appropriate for teachers to sit on the desks, which is another habit that I have. When I get tired of standing, I just sit on a desk for a while, but I guess I won’t do that anymore. I don’t know what I will do because there is not a chair in my classroom for me to sit on. After I found out that I shouldn’t sit on the desks, I started sitting in an empty chair that was not being used by the students.
Despite all of the cultural differences, I am so excited to teach English here. The students are so fun, it is exciting to learn new teaching strategies, and I just can’t wait to get back to the classroom!