There are several tricks that you can use to identify a station, even if you don't know the language. In the case of AIR stations, they (used to?) always play a specific melody or song before they start their transmissions. This is referred to as an 'interval signal'. These are unique to each station - and somewhere around here (in our wiki, no doubt) there are sites that you can use to cross reference them. This is where being able to record from your radio becomes handy.
Another trick is listening at the top or the bottom of the hour. Sometimes the station will announce their ID, and even in another language, with a little concentration you can hear it. Obviously it's much harder in languages such as Hindu or Japanese (there were a couple of articles in books such as the ones put out by Harry Helms and others on this very subject). Sometimes even just identifying the language is a clue.
That's why many of the top DXers aren't necessarily linguists, but they get proficient in identifying a foreign language. Not every DXer can be like the late Dr. Richard Wood (he passed the UN Certification Exams - widely known as being one of the toughest in the field - for almost 2 dozen languages :.>>) but you don't need to be. Just knowing some of the key catch phrases can work to your advantage.
best regards....Mike
