...the novelist Sparks Manila-bound

Nicholas Sparks to visit PHL

By MAUREEN MARIE BELMONTE

August 15, 2011

Manila Bulletin

 

Celebrated novelist Nicholas Sparks tweets in Filipino (Photo courtesy of his Twitter account)

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino fans of “A Walk to Remember” author Nicholas Sparks have a reason to rejoice with his announcement of a forthcoming trip to the Philippines.

“I don't know where my events are, but I'll be in the Philippines on Oct. 27-28th ... and yes, I'll be signing,” posted Sparks on his official Twitter account (@SparksNicholas).

This revelation came after a series of tweets on the various languages that he said that he’s “still learning.”

 

“I'm better at the ‘latin’ languages (spanish, italian, portugese, romanian, french) and okay at northern European languages (German, Dutch).

“I'm not saying I'm fluent ... but I can get around and talk to people in those countries ... with effort on both our parts,” he said.

The novelist of Christian faith, love, tragedy and fate themes mentioned that, “Aside from a bit of Tagalog, my Asian language skills are non-existent. And I'm poor at Arabic (not even good) ... but I like the language.”

However, he did try his hand at composing a message in Filipino, “Aking tiyahin ay mula sa Maynila. Siya itinuro sa akin,” he wrote, which he translated for his non-Filipino followers to mean: “I tried to say that my aunt is from Manila ...she used to talk to me and taught me to say some stuff.”

Having learned the language on his own, he recounted, “My aunt ... she didn't set out to teach me. I just listened to her talk to her mom and her sisters ...”

And being a self-taught Filipino of sort, Sparks wished for his followers “not to be mean.”

“I know I get lots of stuff wrong ... and please, if I see you in Manila, talk slow so I can understand you ... I'm no expert ...” he said.

Sparks is the author of 16 published novels. Six have already been adapted to film, namely the Kevin Costner starrer “Message in a Bottle,” Mandy Moore and Shane West’s film “A Walk to Remember,” and the Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams’ film “The Notebook,” the Richard Gere and Diane Lane starrer “Nights in Rodanthe,” Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried’s “Dear John” and, most recently, Miley Cryus and Liam Hemsworth's “The Last Song.”

While two of his upcoming novels are in various stages of development, the film adaptation of “The Lucky One,” starring Zac Efron, is expected to be released in March or April of 2012. His other novel, "Safe Haven," is expected to begin filming by October, according to his website.