What are the foreign language equivalents to the TOEFL? I'm specifically looking for official tests where a qualifying score would, like the TOEFL, indicate that one's language ability is sufficient to study at a university in that country. For example, China has the HSK test. What would the equivalent test be in other languages? [more inside]
posted by Joey Joe Joe Junior Shabadoo at 10:45 AM - 12 answers

俳句フィルター：Help me find great winter haiku in their original Japanese, but with English translations. [more inside]
posted by Cogito at 11:29 PM - 2 answers

I want the best resources to help me write a nonfiction book proposal. [more inside]
posted by Ouisch at 7:45 PM - 2 answers

A couple of years ago, I read a review of a book that sounded really interesting, but I can't find it now. The book was about a man who found some ancient documents that proved that Satan was good and God was evil (for instance, God denied Adam and Eve access to the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil). Apparently many people took this book to be non-fiction, and it caused a bit of hue & cry. Does anyone know the name of the book?? Thank you.
posted by LauraJ at 12:13 PM - 8 answers

Book-recommendation-filter: Can you help me find something to read? Parameters to follow. [more inside]
posted by Janta at 8:22 AM - 31 answers

Can you help us name our IT company? Or rather...will you? [more inside]
posted by TomMelee at 6:02 AM - 47 answers

Affect/Effect [more inside]
posted by tizzie at 5:27 AM - 9 answers

Need a Christmas salutation in Spanish for a business letter... [more inside]
posted by ryanbryan at 6:44 PM - 4 answers

Please recommend some witty poetry and/or prose in the same vein as Dorothy Parker and Wendy Cope!
posted by whats-in-a-name at 11:50 AM - 2 answers

Would it be considered "fair use" to pen a satirical children's book based on a professional sports team? For instance, "How The Yankees Stole Christmas" or something similar. (That's not the title I have in mind, but it gets the point across.) [more inside]
posted by (bb|[^b]{2}) at 4:45 PM - 9 answers

Contemporary Israeli Fiction Filter: recommendations? [more inside]
posted by devilsbrigade at 11:39 AM - 7 answers

Looking for books where a person or people are searching for a long lost person. [more inside]
posted by reenum at 8:41 AM - 22 answers

Help me find a brief quote by Karl Marx suitable for use on a holiday ornament! Extra points for being commodities-fetish related! [more inside]
posted by luazinha at 12:43 PM - 14 answers

How did you get to know the characters in your novel? [more inside]
posted by 2oh1 at 9:40 PM - 28 answers

I've started writing too slow, thinking too much, not imprisoning the editor, etc. I'm looking for an online or osx tool that encourages writing. It might be as simple as a field that asks you to enter x words within y time. I am having trouble shifting my mindset.
posted by kingfisher, his musclebound cat at 2:05 PM - 14 answers

Is it just me or is the headline on this page offensive? [more inside]
posted by SNACKeR at 5:19 AM - 26 answers

What are some tips in having better speech? [more inside]
posted by InterestedInKnowing at 10:20 PM - 9 answers

I recently read George Orwell's 1984 for the first time, and I was blown away by it! Can you recommend theses/essays/discussions that can be found on the web?
posted by helios410 at 1:03 PM - 12 answers

How would one say "red laws" or "the red laws," in the context of the Roman civil statutes, in Latin?
posted by Bookhouse at 12:36 PM - 7 answers

What are the best online and print/book resources for English language editors? Also, any current or past editors, do you have any knowledge, wisdom, tricks, hacks, for an editing newbie, which you would like to share? Thanks.
posted by barrakuda at 9:24 AM - 10 answers