Pattaya / ED Visa / Thai Language School / Advice Wanted

[Axel PH]

I (American) currently live in the Philippines with my Filipino girlfriend. We just visited Thailand and may want to give an extended stay a try. This lead me to the 1-year ED Visa. We both want to truly learn Thai and making it a requirement of the visa that allows us to stay in the country really adds some extra motivation.

 

In fact, that's my concern, if I decide to do this I will start going hard on learning Thai on my own in the meantime and I'm afraid it will make school suck when I do finally attend. I will be stuck in 8 hours a week of newbie group courses which will probably be torture for all. I do see some private lessons at these ED schools offered but the price almost 200k which is just too much for me. 

 

Any how looking for options, opinions, etc....I guess I could hold off on learning until we are ready to go in like 3 months but I really don't want to. If I'm going to do this I want to start now and hit the ground running.