diff --git a/main.py b/main.py
index 0d1f17b..6b985e5 100644
--- a/main.py
+++ b/main.py
@@ -2,7 +2,10 @@
 
 def path_to_file_list(path: str) -> List[str]:
     """Reads a file and returns a list of lines in the file"""
-    li = open(path, 'w')
+    lines: List[str] = []
+    with open(path, "r", encoding="utf-8") as f:
+        for line in f:
+            lines.append(line.rstrip("\n"))
     return lines
 
 def train_file_list_to_json(english_file_list: List[str], german_file_list: List[str]) -> List[str]: