There are online language courses and you might find a free one or at least cheap.
In Vietnam, we worked with Vietnamese, Cambodians, Montagnards, Thai, Laotian, and Chinese. They were mutually incomprehensible to each other, but all sounded alike to me. Fast, tonal, and somewhat sing-song. I managed to pick up Vietnamese numbers but that's about it. They all had different alphabets, as well.
