The fact that it is one of the hardest languages out there to learn might have something to do with it π€ ( according to global statistics and not Steve from the bar ).. another might be that if you don't speak it correctly you will never be understood ,unlike poorly spoken English that can be understood by anyone anywhere. Nowadays there is alot of access to learning , YouTube is one example.Alot of older expats never had access to these 10 years ago as the content simply wasn't available for such a Niche language.The written language is also extremely complicated to most people and without learning to read the script it's Very difficult to pronounce the thousands of words correctly. One word can have more than 5 meanins for example . I am talking fluency here ,not hello and good bye . It would take about 4 time's longer for a western speaking human to learn Thai due to the complex vowel system not working properly with your tongue /throat and the tones not coming from.the correct part of the mouth/throat. I personally know quite a few very intelligent people that went to school here in Thailand to learn and found it impossible . I know multi lingual people that also find it impossible . Theres a huge portion of the Thai population that don't want you speaking Thai also which can be extremely demotivating .. so adding all of that to the mix should answer the question.. not to mention the different dialects ,in Samui for example it's a southern dialect , but most people working here are from the North (or are none Thai speaking Burmese ) yet the schools will teach you central Thai π Then there's the culture ,you would need to understand the culture to understand what they are really taking about ,it's one off the reasons Google translate is so poor at translating the Thai language .. simply translating to English would be lost in translation with many words and meanings . So unless you are prepared to dedicate a decade to constant submersion and practice daily for hours on end ,speaking Thai won't happen for most expats. There's always an exception to the rule ,but 1500 hours to learn to speak basic FLUENT Thai is a huge investment for most expats . For context I've been here for 14 years and speak and read Thai .