Good books to read from different languages that have been translated to English?

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Could you please suggest me famous books written in a different language that have been translated to english. I feel that this is a good way to learn about the mindset of the people in a country before learning the language. 

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#1
Posts0Likes0Joined3/9/2018LocationSkopje / MK
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Macedonian
Other Arabic - Gulf, English, French, Spanish, Serbian

Yeah it's a good way, you can also check videos! :)) Way easier, for me at least 

Btw like 90% of the books in the world are not written in English! That's pretty logical, but because you want to see the mindset of the people that speak the language you want to learn, you don't need novels I guess? Because novels come from biased imagination and desires, maybe, history books? Or just news? :))) 

Science is probably global too 

Maybe yeah, tradition books, cultural stuff 

Well ethnology books! Or you can just go there and make a fool of yourself not knowing anything, :))) but it's always super cute :p 

Anyway, I guess some political and/or history books, but I only suggest news, as you can deduct from that too, how's their mindset, what are the focused on, what drives them in life, values, standards etc 

Global international news, just news 

Books I have no idea, usually all of them are translated, but it's good to also compare original with translated book! But no novel then 

:) 

Sorry for the ramble :) 

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#2
Posts1630Likes1092Joined18/3/2018LocationBellingham / US
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English
Learning German
Other Chinese - Mandarin, French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog, Thai

SujithPrathap wrote:
Could you please suggest me famous books written in a different language that have been translated to english. I feel that this is a good way to learn about the mindset of the people in a country before learning the language.

Almost everything famous has been translated to English, so the list would be huge. Can you narrow it down to the country?

In Thailand now. Next up Tanzania and Philippines.

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#3
Posts0Likes0Joined3/9/2018Location

Was looking for something in Italian.

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#4
Posts1630Likes1092Joined18/3/2018LocationBellingham / US
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Learning German
Other Chinese - Mandarin, French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog, Thai

In Thailand now. Next up Tanzania and Philippines.

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#5
Posts0Likes0Joined4/9/2018LocationCaracas / VE
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Spanish
Learning German, Italian
Other English

I think that sometimes translations can loose the essence of the message, if you want to learn about their culture I think it is better for you to try with some of Mai's suggestions or try to slowly read in Italian (there is the reading tool in the forum - right upper corner between "lessons" and "forum"). A couple of days ago I read an article about how the meaning or mental images of some things can vary depending of the language you are reading them, imagine how this could impact a translation. Like "la baguette", imagine that the translator translated it like "the bread" instead of "the baguette" it completely changes the mental image of what you are reading. In my country the philosophers are forced to learn at least 2 new languages during their career so they can read Socrates, Kant or any other Philosopher and create an opinion on their own. In my opinion, translations can change the way we interpret things.

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#6
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