@Jacob *******
I do not believe 99% of ex-pats"refuse" to learn Thai, a very sweeping statement. Unlike you I will not purport to represent every ex-pat but where some can expand their Thai knowledge/speaking, I unfortunately can now longer retain "new learning" however my friend who became an ex-pat less than a month ago has been able to embrace the language to an extent and is trying to help me expand my few Thai phrases but will my "memory situation" allow me to retain the input?