And what gets lost between them?
If you read a translated book or subtitles you're not reading what the author wrote, it's the translator's effort. I know enough of a couple of languages to know that quite often what's being fed to you is radically different to the original work.
Similarly if you're some guy from Lesotho who only speaks your local dialect, how much of the world's knowledge is being denied to you by the lack of translation? What about your government as they're likely to be the one and only news source in that language? Surely objectivity and neutrality is almost non existent if someone's information sources are that limited. How much of his knowledge is being denied to anyone who doesn't speak what he does?
There must be mountains of information, art and learning that disappears between cultures because of this.
Is this an unpublicised cultural disaster or does the right info always find a way?
This will go back in Biblical times during the Tower of Babel where mankind was divided thru the "Language Assignment," if you may. Since there was only one language during those times, man took advantage of this to work against God. But certainly God saw what was goin on and so He broke them apart thru language. And obviously up to this time it has remained the same. Since God is the author of all this, then there is a very important reason.
The gap between languages may be necessary to hide or cover up some truths since not all cultures are so accommodating with certain changes. But of course, anything hidden will always be discovered or revealed.