Most un-seasoned expats would think that learning the Thai language would endear yourself to, and make it easier to meet, a beautiful Thai lady, however some may be surprised by their Thai counterpart’s reluctance to speak Thai to you. However bear with it and if your lady is a keeper, she will eventually be really proud to show her friends how you have mastered their notoriously hard language.

Challenge is mainly in the tones I mean they have one word for Dog, Horse, come, but it’s the tone that sets them apart, We also have tones in English, think how you can manipulate the word ‘really’ to sound either surprised, sarcastic, or just for confirmation.

As a long term expat of over ten years here in Thailand the question we get most is how to work in Thailand, the vast majority of travellers meeting young beautiful Thai woman or men, and then want to stay, and the trials and tribulations of a long term relationship across cultures is a very long series of blogs for another day, but suffice to say if you really work at it you, like countless foreigners whom I see here, are blissfully happy with wonderful gorgeous devoted Thai wives. However there are certainly many hurdles in the way:

Visa runs and work permits are just for starters, you can’t really own land, condos yes, but land (some will tell, you, you can but it’s all in a company name with provisos for long leases etc.) so there is a whole long list of changes to be made in your life.

The only real jobs I see here are English teaching in Thailand which ranges from around 20,000-60,000 THB a month (and training in this is around $1500) more if you are a trained teacher from the West, and expat positions through major blue chip organisations, and these are mostly filled up from the home countries in Europe,

The rest of us have come here with a skill of sorts, and spend our time networking within the expat business community and some English speaking Thai business people, or buy and sell goods online. The success rate within this little group is staggeringly low, in fact many come here with some capital they have managed to get from home, savings, home sale, etc. and slowly but surely they fritter that away through mismanagement and lavish gifts on the new svelte girlfriend and return home to Europe in disgrace.

This is where learning a language can give you that new skill you may require and enhance greatly your prospects of surviving in Thailand, and if ten years ago I would have known this I would have done it without hesitation, and I would have not gone through all the hardships and spells of returning home to work in a job I hate to get the money to return to try again!

Learning Thai will make it easier to engage with the indigenous population, that 99% that make up this country, so you can then get a job through a Thai company.

If you can speak Thai you are twenty places above anyone else in the job queue because you can talk to Thais, a market of around 60 odd million people that actually live here!

If you are an English teacher how much more of a success rate and how much easier is your job if you know the Thai word for the English word you are teaching?

Speaking Thai fluently will cut out thousands of hours of needless domestic arguments based on misconceptions of what you or she said to hurt each other so.

So how much does it cost to learn Thai here well about $60 a month!! And how would you like an Education Visa thrown in for nothing? That’s going to save you a minimum of over $60 a month in Visa runs alone! (Please don’t think you can just get the visa and not go the lessons, that’s just stupid and the Thai Government do check and hold an interview to see what you have learned!)

One massive bonus of this technology age is you can join in a Thai lesson anywhere in the world online so you can now surprise your boss and/or listen to what your G/F is really saying about you upon your return!!

For a great resource for English teaching jobs and learning other languages in Thailand visit the fastest growing Facebook group with daily jobs and tips.