What is the best way to open a file with the encoding? In python

Question

I'm learning how to use files with python, and my teacher said that is always recommended to open a file using utf-8, why?

Answer 1

Because utf-8 is standart and the best encoding. Using for example ACII encoding may corrupt your strings. Plus modules like easygui should work fine with utf-8, when with others-not very fine.