Aside from taking up Medicine, Rizal was considered "a polyglot conversant in at least ten languages. He was a prolific poet, essayist, diarist,
correspondent, and novelist whose most famous works were his two novels, "Noli me Tangere" and "El Filibusterismo". These are social
commentaries on the Philippines that formed the nucleus of literature that inspired dissent among peaceful reformists and spurred
the militancy of armed revolutionaries against 333 years of Spanish rule ..." ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Rizal ).