martyp
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
I moved to Bangkok 5 years ago from the San Francisco Bay Area. In many places, and particularly in the major expat cities, language is not a serious barrier to every day living. If one insisted in living in the most remote countryside then of course it would be a problem but that would be a problem in any non-English speaking country. Over time, with a little bit of effort you can pick up snippets of the language. I can speak functional Thai but I am not conversational. You won’t be developing deep relationships with non-English speaking locals but there usually English speaking expats nearby. My Thai wife doesn’t speak fluent English but English is the language we communicate with. Finding expats to socialize with in Bangkok has been easy but even in the small city near my wife’s Isaan village there is a small community of friendly expats.