%base_lang = (
   'English'  => '0',
   'French'   => '1',
   'Japanese' => '2',
);

# then we set up some magic arrays
@red   = qw(red french_word_for_red japanese_word_for_red);
@hello = qw(hi bonjour japanese_word_for_hello);

# now the fun

$lang_num = $base_lang{$choice};

print "$red[$lang_num] is $choice for red\n";
print "$hello[$lang_num] is $choice for hello\n";

# so on and so forth

##</code><code>##


# This is a little redundant as it recreates the @red array,
# but @words has all the values so it only dissappears for 
# a little bit :)
(@words) = @red;

# Now create out arrays for all the languages in the same 
# order to retain our own and our data's sanity :)

foreach $item (@words) {
   @{$item} = @words;
}

##</code><code>##

@red          = qw(red french_red japanese_red);
@french_red   = qw(red french_red japanese_red);
@japanese_red = qw(red french_red japanese_red);

##</code><code>##


# take for granted all words are within a particular array
# and we recently added German with index of 3

while ( defined($word = shift(@vocab)) ) {
   print "No German word for $word!\n" if (!${$word}[3]);
}