Happy to help...
If you choose to use the flags solution for the front page... this was my take on it...
<% if Translations %>
<% control Translations %>
<a href="$Link" hreflang="$Locale.RFC1766" title="$Title - $Locale.Nice">
<img width="40" height="26" src="<<YOURSITEDIR>>/flags/<% sprintf(_t('IMAGE','%2.2s'),$Locale.RFC1766) %>.jpg">
</a>
<% end_control %>
<% end_if %>
(flag source - http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/flags/)
by renaming the flag image names you can get the flags to auto display - might be an issue when you start having different languages in one country (or vice versa) but for most this will work...
Barry