Being from the UK I have no interest in learning the language, when in the UK school I also had no interest in learning French, which we were told would be a great asset...π
For me, been living here for many years, I get by not speaking Thai/Laos, when I did speak it, folk just looked at each other...π....so now don't bother, except some very basic stuff.
I have even spoken Queens English with Uni-English Thais, same thing, don't understand me, though to be fair, if I phone 3BB, press 9 for English, with a problem, they understand me perfectly, 10 out of 10........
So no, if you want to learn Thai/Laos, great, but get to a stage where you can converse, if not, waste of time....π€