In 2015 I was living in Bangkok and took an intensive 6-week Thai course where I picked-up some basics. As I was working in an English school at the time, and as most Thai people I encountered had better English than I had Thai, I rarely got to use my Thai as even if I tried to use it, people tended to reply in English.
Fast-forward to the modern day, I’ve spent a bit of time Thailand over the past year or so, including a couple of months in less tourist-heavy areas including Loei, Nakhon Ratchasima, and to a lesser extent Udon Thani.
Because of the lack of English in these areas, I’ve recalled as much Thai as I can from 2015, and have spoken and consequently learned more Thai in these couple of months than I did in the three years I stayed in Bangkok after studying, and it’s made me appreciate the value of being immersed in and forced to use Thai in order to learn.
Currently I’m here as a tourist, but what I would like to do is to return and study Thai here again, but I’d like to do so in a place without many tourists or much English, so that I’m immersed and I’m forced to speak Thai all day.
The problems is that I’m yet to find any Thai language schools in such areas that offer an education visa, which is understandable. Why would they offer a service to foreigners in areas with very few foreigners? The irony being I can only get an education visa to study Thai in areas where it’s less necessary to speak it, and so less conducive to learning.
I’m not old enough for a retirement visa, not married enough for a marriage visa, and I’m not committed enough to Thailand to want to spend the money on an elite visa, so my only real option is the ED visa.
I’m aware of Thai language schools offering education visas in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Huahin, Pattaya and a few other areas, but I’m yet to find such a school in an area that I wouldn’t consider touristy.
Are there any that I’m missing? Can anyone make any suggestions of Thai language schools that offer an ED visa, in a city or town that wouldn’t be considered touristy?
