%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