Giving up Phuket for Bangkok??? I would think that the only way to do that would be with a significant dosage of Lithobid. Why would one give up individual instruction in your current location for a class structure in the metropolis? And, besides, the ขนมจีนน้ำยา and ปลาเผา in your current environment cannot be matched in Gotham.

The new Tones Chart.

David, I fixed them, but I thought ขาบ instead of ขบ would have a rising tone not a low tone? I'm confused.

Well, and how do I say this tackfully????,,, You're probably here on a retirement or Marriage visa, I'm assuming, and for me, If I stop working those aren't options. I would like to focus just on learning Thai, and BKK seems like the place to do it, with it's choice of many schools, and easy to scoup up privates, I could study Thai 3 days a week, and Teach privates in the evening, and make as much as I'm making now, with complete freedom. Plus I'm a young guy, and I could put up with the smog of BKK for a year. When I look at priorities right now in my life, I enjoy teaching English, but everyday I wish I was studying Thai in the classroom. My work hours would be cut from 40 to 6 . That's a lot of extra time for studying, and traveling. Though you do bring up a good point about the food, and the city life.

I am also considering Chiang Mai, but the Uni. there is much more expensive, I've read posts saying it's around 80,000 per year. Though Chiang Mai is amazing.

Thanks for the opinions, I do weigh them heavily.

Lithobid

"I thought ขาบ instead of ขบ would have a rising tone not a low tone? I'm confused."

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ขาบ = High class consonant + long vowel + final consonant stop creates a dead syllable = low tone

(A high class consonant with a long vowel would have a rising sound, except in a dead syllable. Compare, for example, ขาบ which is dead with ขาม which is a rising tone because the ม makes the syllable live.)

ขบ = High class consonant + short vowel + final consonant stop creates a dead syllable = low tone

Your original chart has the latter word under the category "long vowel". The name of the tone is correct, but a short vowel syllable has a different sound than a long vowel syllable, hence the recommendation to change the exemplar.