Language school visa for 6 months?

I am sick of the cold and long winters where I am currently living in the UK. In the future, I would like to ideally spend the six months from October/November to March/April in Chiang Mai. I like Thailand but do not like Bangkok or beach resorts. I like mountains, history and nature, but feel I would be best in a large city to start off with.

For visa purposes, am I correct in thinking that my best option is to sign up for a language school? To be honest, I just want it for the visa, although I do like learning new languages and I would like to do basic Thai. But I could not commit to doing many hours a week, just the minimum, both for expense and time reasons (I work remotely).

Is this viable? I have not actually been in Thailand for a couple of decades now, so I would probably go for a test visit for about a month first of all, maybe next January/February, just to see how I like Chiang Mai. I have never been further north than Sukhothai (which I loved, by the way).

\[I once did MMA and would ideally love to go to a Muay Thai school, but I am just too old to get knocked around now!\]

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