my Experience Living in Thailand on a Student Visa and Learning Thai

Hi guys, so as some of you may know, I'm

in Thailand on a student visa and I was

attending a Thai language course for a few

months. And I've actually finished my Thai

language course and I thought I'd make a

video talking about what the experience

was like, how you can sign up to a Thai

language school and also get a student

visa, and, you know, just talking about

the details. So first of all, the price.

It cost about $1,000 for an 11-month

student visa and you have to go to school

for about 4 months. You do have to go

almost every day. If you keep skipping

school, then you might might get in

trouble and you might end up having to go

to immigration and explain why you haven't

been going to school, or you might

actually lose your visa if you don't go to

school. So you have to go to school. You

can't just pay for the visa and then not

go to school at all. So you only go to

school for about 4 months. You have 4

courses, each lasting 1 month each. You

get 3 courses, speaking, listening and

speaking courses, and then the 4th course

is reading and writing. And then for the

remaining 7 months of the visa, you can

just do whatever you want to do. So on top

of the $1,000 for the initial price to

attend the school and join the course,

you also have to pay about $100 or 3,000

Thai baht every 90 days because Thailand

has a thing where if you're staying in

Thailand for over 90 days, you have to go

to immigration every 90 days to do like a

checkup and extend your visa. They won't

just give you the 11-month visa straight

up front and then it's all finished. You

have to go every 90 days to immigration

and they charge you 3,000 baht to prepare

the documents for you. They prepare all

the documents in an envelope, and then you

go to immigration, and then they phone up—

you phone up the school when you arrive at

immigration, and then they phone up their

guy at immigration, and then you kind of

get fast-tracked to the guy. So you just

stamp— you sit there and he stamps your

passport and he checks the papers, and

then he just gives you an extension for

the next 90 days. And then the next 90

days comes, you gotta pay another $100. I

think I ended up going to immigration

about 3 or 4 times, so that's like $100

each time. So I'd say in total it's about

$1,500 for the school cost and the

immigration documents that they prepare

for you. Now you can actually prepare the

documents yourself, and that would cost

about 1,900 baht, so you would save about

1,000 baht if you did it yourself. But

then you've got to prepare all the

documents yourself, and then I don't know

how long you have to wait at immigration.

Maybe they don't fast-track you to the

immigration guy if you don't pay them.

Now as for the actual classes, I went to a

school called Triple A school, and I think

they're a very good school. I would highly

recommend AAA if you're looking for a

school in Bangkok to go to. I think it's

pretty good. It was a nice school.

Teachers were all pretty good and nice and

friendly. So you get to choose between

either morning class or afternoon class.

You have to go Monday to Friday, so you do

have to go every single day of the week.

And I chose morning class because I prefer

to just go in the morning and finish all

my classes and then have the rest of the

day to myself. So morning class was 9

until 12, and then afternoon class is 1

until 4, and then you also get a 10-minute

break each hour. So you actually just do

50 minutes, and then you have a 10-minute

break, and then you do another 50 minutes,

and then 10-minute break, and then you do

about another 50 minutes, and then you can

go home. They are quite strict about face

masks. You have to wear a face mask, but

some of the teachers didn't wear face

masks. And then nearing the end of the

courses, they didn't really seem to mind

too much, and they didn't really say

anything if you took your mask off. So

maybe they won't really make a big fuss

about wearing a face mask anymore because

this whole COVID situation situation is

kind of coming to an end now. Not many

people outside are wearing face masks

anymore compared to when I first arrived

in Thailand back in October of 2022.

Everyone was wearing a face mask, but

nowadays it's more common to see people

not wearing it. So the first class, the

first day of going to school, is quite

interesting. There was about 10 or 11

people in the classroom. There's quite a

mixture of different nationalities, had a

few Americans a few Chinese people, a

Taiwanese person, a couple people from

other countries like Myanmar, Cambodia,

and then there was me from the UK. And it

was quite fun. We introduced ourselves to

each other in Thai straight from the

beginning of the classroom. We had to

start speaking Thai, say stuff like,

hello, nice to meet you, my name is

Daniel, I'm from the UK, stuff like that.

And then also say things like, I like

tennis, I like playing video games, I'm

interested in living in Thailand, that

kind of very basic stuff. And the teacher

would introduce us to the new grammar and

the new words and then get us to use it

with the people sitting next to us. It was

kind of nerve-wracking in the beginning

because I'm a pretty shy person. I'm not

very sociable, not very confident, and I

get very nervous talking to strangers. So

having to suddenly speak to these people

I've never met before in a completely

brand new unknown language was kind of

scary. I was very nervous about making

mistakes and sounding silly if I messed up

the pronunciation of words and stuff like

that. So I felt like there was some kind

of pressure put on me because everyone was

watching. When it's your turn to speak,

everyone's looking at you, so it does feel

a bit nerve-wracking. Sometimes the

classes did feel like they were dragging

on a little bit because there's so many

people. There's about 10 or 12 people,

and everyone has different ability levels.

Some people are very quick to pick up new

languages and pick up new grammar and

learn new words, and then other people are

not so quick. So I had a few people in the

classroom who were a bit older, so like

50-something, and they didn't really— they

weren't able to catch on to the new stuff

as quickly as the younger people. And you

would learn a new word, and even if you've

understood it, you've now got to wait for

the entire class. You've got to wait for

the teacher to go around the entire class

to make sure everyone has understood it.

So for example, there was this time where

we learned a new word, but there was this

one person who just really couldn't

pronounce the word. He was really

struggling. And then it took like half an

hour to finally finish learning this new

word because it took the whole class such

a long time. I personally understood the

word and I was ready to move on to the

next thing, but it was taking the other

people such a long time. I was just

sitting there doodling in my textbook

because I was bored and waiting for the

class to actually finish this word and

then move on to the next one. So there can

be downsides of group learning, but I

would say that overall it was a fun

experience to meet new people and also

interact with new people. If it's just you

and the teacher, it can feel kind of

awkward. But if there's a bunch of other

people learning with you, then you feel

like you're learning together, you're

progressing together. And even if you mess

up and make a mistake, it's not really a

big deal because everyone in the class is

making mistakes and messing up. That's

just how it works when you're learning a

new language. No one's going to be

perfect. And yeah, you can make friends

and chat to people. And I talked to a few

people in between breaks, on the breaks,

and after class as well. So it was a nice

experience to finally socialize a bit and

come out of my shell a little bit and meet

new people. So I've actually finished my

class. I finished a couple months ago,

and I'm just here in Thailand now on the

remainder of my visa, and I can just do

whatever I want to, which is nice. But I

feel a bit sad sometimes that the class is

over. I do kind of miss the people I met

in the class. Unfortunately, I didn't

exchange contact details with anyone

because I'm kind of awkward about that.

But yeah, it was fun, and I feel a bit sad

it's over now. One little warning, you do—

you will have to take a test, like a tiny

little mini test after the end of your

courses. And if you don't pass the test,

you might have difficulties or troubles at

immigration getting your visa extended.

So the test is very simple. You have to

answer about 20 or 30 questions. They're

very easy. I did a little bit of studying

after class and I practiced a little bit

reading and writing. And you'll do a

one-on-one session with the teacher.

She'll ask you questions like, What is

your favorite fruit? What is your favorite

food? Why did you come to Thailand? What

do you like about Thailand? It's very

basic questions, very easy. I didn't

really have to study or revise that hard

to be able to answer these questions. And

then you do a reading section, which was

pretty difficult, and I did have to revise

quite hard to be able to read this. You

read a few sentences and then you've also

got to do like a written test, multiple

choice, I think, fill out the blanks. And

then finally you've got to read this

pretty long chunky paragraph which was

quite difficult and it took me a long time

to read it all because I'm a pretty slow

reader. I was sitting there like this.

The cat went home.

I'm so slow when it comes to reading

because the Thai language is quite tricky

to learn how to read. A lot of the symbols

look the same as other symbols, but

they're just slightly different. So yeah,

you kind of do have to study. You can't

just go to the class and sit there and

daydream Because if you don't pay

attention, you won't understand what

you're being taught, and then you won't be

able to pass the test, and then they might

not extend your visa, and then you would

have just paid all that money, and then

you wouldn't get the entire visa, and then

it's just kind of, you know, you wasted

your money. So yeah, you do have to go to

school, you do have to take it seriously,

you do have to study. The Thai government

doesn't want people just paying for the

visa and then not bothering to go to

school. They actually want you to go to

school and actually actually study the

language. And then after you finish the

little mini test, you're basically done.

You don't have to go to school anymore

apart from to pick up the visa documents

every 90 days. They'll send you an email

or a message saying that your documents

are ready, and then you just go and pick

them up, and then you take them to the

immigration, and then you're good for

another 90 days. And then next 90 days,

they'll send you another message. You got

to pick up the documents again, pay the

$100, go to immigration. You gotta do that

a few times. It is a annoying to have to

do that. So yeah, that was my experience

going to Thai language school for nearly a

year. It's pretty easy, just go to the

school, say you're interested, pay the

money. They basically do everything for

you. They prepare all the documents, they

explain what you have to do, they tell you

where you have to go for the immigration

stuff, and then just go to class, meet

people, have a good time, learn the Thai

language, and then hopefully you can use

it to talk to people outside when you're

traveling around Thailand. I think it was

a pretty fun experience, and I definitely

recommend it if you're interested in

living in Thailand for a bit longer than

just a few months and you want to kind of

experience what it's like to live here

instead of just being a tourist here.