as someone from a very minor east-euro country (~7m people overall) - but having its own language AND alphabet) - one has to invest in some lingua-franca languages in order to be world-compatible :) and to have access to (quality) translations of whatever-other-language-media. For me those have been English and Russian, covering maybe 30-50% of world, as culture (or at least the accessible world). i'd love to have one more covering the east-asia.. but it's a somewhat too late, and nowhere to do it..

i mean, for me, translations of Tao-Te-Ching in english are different from those in russian.. general idea is same but kind-of emphasizing different aspects/interpretations/connotations of the original. IMO English is much more perpendicular to east-asian thinking than russian.. which has its pros and cons.