Learning Thai
Many westerners do not make time to learn written Thai, focusing instead only on speaking. One problem with this approach is that the various reference materials you will accumulate each use a different transcription scheme (phonemic spelling with a western alphabet), and it thus becomes difficult to recognize connections between your multiple sources of information. Although only you can decide whether to make the extra effort to study Thai script, I think it can provide a valuable and rewarding foundation for continued learning of the Thai language.
Some beginning students are intimidated by the initricacies of register mentioned briefly above—that is, language variation according to situation or social context. Registers of Thai include royal, ecclesiastical, rhetorical, elegant, radio/television broadcast, and common street language. This is not a problem, however, since the usages are fairly elastic, and foreigners may be allowed more leeway, since the effort to speak Thai is widely appreciated. There are many ways to say “I” or “you,” for example, but those used by royalty or ecclesiastics won't be of concern to the beginner.