Asia Travel Tip: Learn Thai In Thailand

Answer : No. During my time in Thailand (8 years or so) I met very few westerners who could speak Thai with any degree of fluency. Those who could however, had never attended any kind of school. They had instead armed themselves with a good Thai/English Dictionary (although be wary of these-I spent 3 weeks telling people I was “very sad” instead of “sorry” when I bumped into them) and a book for learning Thai. They then interacted with as many people as possible and used the language whenever possible. A very good book is “The fundamentals of the Thai Language” which is rather difficult to get hold of but if you can get your hands on it, I think you’ll find it very useful. You can also find it at http://www.geocities.com/funthai/FRAME.html. Each chapter takes you through each of the four main language skills but does rely on you having a Thai friend to help you through it. Don’t think you’ll find this a problem though as many Thais are very keen to make friends with foreigners.
In six months you won’t become fluent but you could certainly become very competent. I only intended to stay 6 months too.