internationalizing text

so who's got a clever implementation of cross-linguistic texts?

    create table something (
        id serial,
        yadayada int4,
        whatever date,
        mumble float8,

        en varchar(50), -- english
        es varchar(50), -- espanol
        fr varchar(50), -- francais
        de varchar(50), -- deutsch

        ...
    );

or maybe

    create table something (
        id serial,
        yadayada int4,
        whatever date,
        mumble float8,
        ...
    );
    create table something_text (
        id int4 references something(id),
        lang varchar(5), -- language code 'en-us','it','jp'...
        descr varchar(50)
    );

anybody done something like this? is there another concept or are
these two the whole ball-o-wax? pro's and con's?

--
It is always hazardous to ask "Why?" in science, but it is often
interesting to do so just the same.
        -- Isaac Asimov, 'The Genetic Code'

will@serensoft.com
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