Just did my first visa run (border bounce) to Cambodia, Ban Pakkad, and it took maybe 25 minutes from the time we arrived until the entire group of 9 people was done. It had far fewer steps than your Vientiane run. I'd recommend going there next time if it's not too far for you.
in Bangkok. I was at a conversational level after 4 months there and with the base I got from them I got to fluent in a years time.
Study and practice outside of school all the time and use YouTube to learn phrases, tones and the alphabet. The more you're around the language, the easier the tones will get.
But because Thai is a tonal language, which English isn't, if you spend 90% of your time speaking and hearing English, nothing, except the basics, will stick.