But what concerns me the most is that you dismiss the world literature without even knowing it and without being able to learn it. It's so arrogant that I can't seem to find the words to express my sorrow. All I can say is that the loss is yours. Nobody in the world has ever produced literature, songs and music like the French and Russian masters have. I am able to enjoy them in their natural form, as well as the English... let's call it "content". I can directly compare them and I'm telling you it would have been a loss of a monumental scale if I had been born in an English-speaking country and would have never been able to make acquaintance with those pieces.
That's not to mention that foreign languages are often less constrained and more expressive than English which on itself allows for more profound thoughts to be born and more naturally and creatively expressed. But that's not something that English-only speakers will ever find out.
I might try to persuade you to change your opinion but I won't. There's nothing in your position to brag about. In a way, I'm luckier than you and to that end I can only express my deepest regrets to you.
Tastes may vary but to dismiss foreign literature outright betrays a lack of experience as a reader. This is where I complain, as an old guy, about the poor state of liberal arts education.
Do yourself a favor and pick up some Dostoevsky. Or Gunter Grass. Or Murakami. Or Knut Hamsen. Or oh hell, there are far too many to list, those just come to the forefront in my head.
Have to disagree here. Yes there is a lot of good stuff especially written in the past but looking at today I see high caliber English writers and books in every category I do not see in that quality and quantity in any other language. Ok I do not know how it's about Chinese but that's my perception regarding other in particular European languages.
Always when I look for something, literature, fiction or non-fiction I switcch after seconds to Amazon.com from my local Amazon and find way better and more stuff. Frankly, the local selection feels like written by amateurs comapred to the US, I know this might sound bold and is probably too generalizing but the general perception is that you do not miss out anything if you stick to English based literate, rather the opposite. Of course therr are exception and genious writes not from the US like Unberto Eco and others but still nothing to the vast majority English based literature offers. Heck, even my Kindle account is US only.
If one country produces excellent media it's the US.