Read a book

>Read a book
>Find out later you didn't read the "right" translation

What do you do, Veeky Forums?

Stop being such a faggot

> translations

I blogpost with a generic frog meme on Veeky Forums

If you were fluent in most of the languages books are written in, this wouldn't happen to you. The fact you're not implies your parents were retarded and lazy. This implies you are probably retarded and lazy.

Which explains your frogposting.

The only languages you need is ancient greek and chinese

>Hurr durr you need to be fluent in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French, German, English and Russian to be able to appreciate any literature.

I know English and Russian.
It's enough to understand 99% literature.

>99% literature
You're gonna go blind and probably die if you drink that.

This. Honestly I just read works originally written in English. When I'm done with those i will try a translation.

read the 'right' translation. duh.

Everyone should indeed learn Greek, Latin and Hebrew in elementary school though.

>implying this is wrong :^)

>falling for the >translations meme
plebs detected

What's common in Europe? I know non-english countries often learn english early. But I'd be surprised if more than 100 people alive in burgerland have done what you said

The mainlanders learn English from a very young age. The Brits, on the other hand, only require compulsory learning of a language (usually French, German or Spanish) for about three years in high school.

As for translations, shrug and move on. Even the best translations are little more than an approximation.

Yes it's only english and lessons in native language, but greek, latin, hebrew should be mandatory.
>inb4 m-muh time
If kids have time to play vidya they have time to learn language

Depends on the country. In Germany pretty much everyone learns English in school. A lot of people learn a second and (if they're going to university) third language as well (usually French or Latin, Russian was common in the DDR), and then the only people who learn anything beyond that are people who are studying languages or people who go to a special school (like a classical school that teaches everyone Latin and Greek). In southern Europe people mostly just learn English and maybe french or german for tourists.

Also a lot of people aren't that good at languages besides English even if they take them in school, because they only study for a few years and watch or listen to less non-English foreign media.

I spend 60% of the time trying to find out what's the right translation, 30% searching for it.

>greek
It's ancient greek by the way.

>reading a translation
>not learning a language just to read the book
pleb

>little more than an approximation.
What a fucking empty phrase. I'm disgusted by it's vacuity.

>He doesn't spend weeks researching for the best translation

only happened to me two or three times before I got a clue, now I always search for the right one beforehand

Who cares? In reading a translation, you're not reading for the author's unique style or prose. It will always be an imitation. As long as the translation retained the spirit of the text and had the same tone and content, then it really doesn't matter.

>The Brits, on the other hand, only require compulsory learning of a language (usually French, German or Spanish) for about three years in high school.
That's basically the same as what is required in America.

>Thinking your fluency earned on Rosetta Stone is more reliable than even mediocre professionals

I spend so much time stressing over which translation to get. It makes me not want to bother and just read English books.

Leave your stress and botherings to me!