2 weeks to build a SaaS engine VS 44 years to finally learn conversational English

Week seven in Bangkok: the core is done, family drama and learning to actually speak better English

December 21st, 2025. The first major milestone is complete. My secret SEO tool has a working engine. But Christmas brought some unexpected family tensions, and I'm working hard on something I came to Thailand for: drastically improving my spoken English.

The engine is ready

This week, I finished the core Python script that powers my entire SEO project. This script is the engine of the system, the actual value proposition. It's what makes someone choose my tool over doing everything manually: it saves time, gives better results and automates processes that would take hours (or days) by hand.

It's also the part where AI-assisted coding really shined. I don't think I could have built something this sophisticated this quickly without Claude and Gemini helping me every step of the way.

But finishing the engine doesn't mean the product is ready. Far from it.

Here's what's coming next:

Step 1: Build an API layer

Currently, the process runs only as a standalone script. That's fine for testing, but useless for customers. I need to wrap it in an API so it can be accessed as a web service. This means setting up endpoints, handling requests, managing rate limits, and making sure everything scales properly.

Step 2: Connect it to a database

Users need to be able to save their data, reload it later, track their progress over time. That means integrating a proper database (probably PostgreSQL) to store user information, query results, historical data, everything. Right now, everything is ephemeral: run the script, get results, done. That's not a product, that's a demo.

Step 3: Build the user interface

Nobody wants to interact with a Python script through a terminal. I need to create an actual interface where users can input their parameters, visualize their results, download reports, all in a clean, intuitive UX. This is probably the part I'm least excited about, but it's absolutely critical. A powerful engine with a terrible interface is still a terrible product.

Step 4: Develop the marketing front-end

Landing page, authentication system, payment integration (Stripe), email flows, onboarding sequences. All the stuff that turns "cool script" into "actual SaaS business". This is where most indie hackers underestimate the work required. The product is maybe 40% of the effort. The go-to-market infrastructure is the other 60%.

So yeah, the engine is done, but I'm maybe 30% of the way to having something I can actually launch.

The work continues. Every day. One step at a time 🏗️

Family tensions over Christmas

This week has been emotionally tough.

We're approaching Christmas, and my family back in France isn't happy that I'm not there. My parents are disappointed, which I understand. It's our first Christmas apart, and they miss having the whole family together.

But the real tension comes from my younger brother.

He doesn't approve of my decision to move to Thailand. At all. And he's been pretty vocal about it, especially recently. According to him, people who come to Thailand do it for bad reasons, like "exploiting poor people" or for "sex tourism".

Yes, really… These are the stereotypes he clings to.

My brother lives in the countryside near Besançon, a small town in eastern France. He's someone who never travels abroad, doesn't leave his region much, and has pretty strong opinions about how the world works despite limited exposure to it. He's closed-minded, proud, and convinced that he knows better than everyone else because he's French. You know, "the people of the Enlightenment" and all that 🙄

It's the typical profile of the French person who complains about everything, thinks they're smarter than the rest of the world just because they're French, and judges situations they've never experienced themselves.

I'm not angry at him. Honestly, I'm just sad.

It hurts when your own family doesn't support your choices. When they reduce your entire life decision to offensive stereotypes. When they refuse to even try to understand why you made this move.

I've tried explaining: the cost of living, the entrepreneurial opportunity, the lifestyle improvements, the fact that I'm literally building a business here, not "exploiting" anyone or engaging in whatever dark fantasies he's projecting onto Thailand.

But he doesn't want to hear it. His mind is made up.

So I've accepted it. I can't change him. I can't force him to be open-minded or supportive. All I can do is continue building my life here, prove through my actions that his assumptions are wrong, and hope that eventually, maybe, he'll see things differently.

In the meantime, it makes this Christmas season a bit lonely. I'm here in Bangkok, working on my project, while my family is back in France judging my choices from afar.

But as we say in French: C'est la vie!

And I have to move forward anyway.

Learning to speak English (finally)

Here's the honest truth: I'm 44 years old, and my spoken English is around A2 level.

I can understand it perfectly. I follow entire conversations without missing a word. I watch movies in English without subtitles. I read technical documentation, blog posts, everything. No problem.

But speaking? That's where I struggle.

I can hold basic conversations, express simple ideas, get my point across in most situations. But I'm far from fluent. I lack vocabulary, I make grammatical mistakes and I often search for words mid-sentence.

I'm the stereotypical French person who never needed English in daily life. I studied it in school, sure, but I never actually used it. My entire career was in France, with French clients, French teams, French everything. So despite decades of passive exposure to English, my speaking ability never developed beyond basic level.

And now that I'm in Bangkok, surrounded by international people, this limitation is hitting me hard.

I see young Europeans around 25-30 years old speaking fluent English like it's nothing. Meanwhile, I'm struggling to form basic sentences in conversations. It's humbling. And honestly, a bit shameful 🤦‍♂️

But that was part of my plan when I came to Thailand. I had to do something about it.

For the past month, I've been taking 1 hour of English lessons every single day. It's intense. My teacher focuses entirely on conversation practice, forcing me to speak, correcting my mistakes, building my confidence.

The good news? I'm already noticing progress. My brain is starting to unlock patterns that were dormant. I'm forming sentences faster. I'm less hesitant to speak up in social situations.

The bad news? I still have a long way to go. But at this pace (7 hours per week of focused practice) I should see real improvement within a few months. I hope so!

I also want to thank all my English-speaking friends here in Bangkok for their incredible patience. Adam, Danielle, James, Raz, Morgan and everyone else who's had to endure my imperfect English during our conversations. You guys are saints 😅

Learning a language at 44 isn't easy. But it's necessary. And I'm committed to making it happen!

This is week seven in Bangkok. The engine is ready. The family drama is real. And I'm finally learning to speak like an adult. Progress on all fronts, even the uncomfortable ones 💪