What has Toshi been studying since the Garuda he boarded took off from Changi airport for Cengkareng 10 months ago?

Seeing my pals out there in Singapore w/ their A-level studies, whereby some even take the trouble to do an H3 subject, I can’t help but feeling rather annoyed.

Nope, I ain’t continuing yesterday’s “I miss ACS” lament in case anyone’s wondering. It’s just in comparison to my fellow scholars there who are striving to achieve their A in paper work, general paper, and the other H1 and H2 subs, I am doing almost nothing.

And I’m NOT happy about that. I’m lagging far behind them, w/ my feet dragging my whole body as I attempt to run match their speed.

The only things I’ve studied so far are these:

1. Japanese

During the old days, I only study Japanese when I have time to spare. Nowadays a pastime is no longer a question. I have 24/7!!! As there are four aspects of a language (which is Listening, Reading, Speaking, Writing), I take care to do my best not to neglect any single one of those four. I listen to Japanese by watching Animax and NHK, I read many Japanese children books (w/ furigana attached, of course), and I speak Japanese during my class, and write Kanji for my homeworks. Good deal of progress so far.

2. Esperanto

Never heard of it? Yeah, I hadn’t too. I found out about the existence of this artificial language called Esperanto a little while back in May. It only takes a minimum three months for anyone to study, so I guessed my time would worth it. Wanna know more, just follow the following hyperlink. This one, only two language aspects I’ve covered (Reading and Writing), as I’m studying it independently by my own.

3. General Knowledge

I changed the newspaper subscription home from KOMPAS to The Jakarta Post. For my English really, as KOMPAS covers a million more news than the latter, there’s no need to doubt that KOMPAS is better. And when I read JakPost, I really read it, not just flicker thru the headlines and straightly go to the Sports Section like other 17-year-olds do… If I have money to burn, sometimes I also buy TIME and Reader’s Digest, but not that often. And yes, I daresay I’m still the guy in town who’s always the most aware of the most current affairs for that reason.

4. English

Of course I need to hone my English. Otherwise it’ll just slip thru my Broca’s Area and go wasted like a thing I’ve never learned. I’ve read so many novels here in Jakarta. I even attempted to study a new Shakespeare (OTHELLO), but quit studying it as I have no mentor to guide me. I listen to BBC podcasts, speak English by reading English texts aloud (w/ my imitated British accent), and write English by uh… Blogging. Kinda late, I know, but better late than never!

Yeah... that's all. For now, I think.