Questions over the spell Persuasion and the skill Foreign Languages

Burning Wheel Subsystem Advice and Guidance
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First: Persuasion
For the spell Persuasion does the caster have to give the suggestion directly to the target?
For example the sorcerer and the brute are talking directly to each other and,
Sorcerer: (Persuasion) Brute, what the Priest said to you should make you angry enough to go beat the tar out of him.
Brute: Yeah, that does make me angry!
Priest: DEAR GOD STOP BEATING ME!
Or
Sorcerer spies Brute sitting next to Priest and,
Sorcerer: Cast Persuasion, Persuasion magics its self to Brute with the suggestion “You should beat the tar out of the Priest for bad mouthing your mother”
Brute: Looks at Priest. Never speak bad of my mother!
Priest: DEAR GOD STOP BEATING ME!

Or in other words does the suggestion have to be direct in conversation or can the sorcerer hide away and magic Persuasion at him?
Also the book says what happens if the spell meets OB but if the spell doesn’t meet OB and the sorcerer is still alive from the failed casting. Does anyone know they were the target of a failed Persuasion spell?

Second: Foreign Languages
From how it reads Foreign Languages I take it meaning when you try to communicate with another person and you don’t speak the language, so you use hand gestures, pointing at things and making odd sounds when you think you have it right. I’m seeing it used as the catch all for being able to understand conversations between two or more native speakers conveying complicated concepts, ideas and thoughts with great clarity. Or to read ancient tablets ,hieroglyphics, military plans or foreign decrees with previously mentioned clarity. Is Foreign Languages really this damn useful? Can it easily replace learning Elf, Dwarf or other complicated language as the generic catchall?

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{BWG pg217} “Sorcery renders supple the words and tongue of a magician. Using persuasion, a sorcerer may offer a suggestion to his target.”

In other words, “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for”.

Also the book says what happens if the spell meets OB but if the spell doesn’t meet OB and the sorcerer is still alive from the failed casting. Does anyone know they were the target of a failed Persuasion spell?

This depends on the sorcerer’s idiom and the failed casting roll, but {BWG pg500} “Spellcasting is not a subtle or concealed art.”
However, the Sorcerer can use Coup de Magie {BWG pg513} to cast in private, and hold the spell until he talks to the Brute.

Second: Foreign Languages
From how it reads Foreign Languages I take it meaning when you try to communicate with another person and you don’t speak the language, so you use hand gestures, pointing at things and making odd sounds when you think you have it right. I’m seeing it used as the catch all for being able to understand conversations between two or more native speakers conveying complicated concepts, ideas and thoughts with great clarity. Or to read ancient tablets ,hieroglyphics, military plans or foreign decrees with previously mentioned clarity. Is Foreign Languages really this damn useful? Can it easily replace learning Elf, Dwarf or other complicated language as the generic catchall?

See this http://www.burningwheel.org/forum/showthread.php?11736-The-Foreign-Languages-Skill&highlight=foreign+languages

Foreign languages allows you to communicate with another character, so no reading ancient tablets or hieroglyphs, military plans, or foreign decrees without a linked test with Read/ Research / Ancient and Obscure History/ Strategy/ Symbology etc.

Using gestures etc. get you +1D.

As far as replacing learning Dwarven or Elvish, it depends how complex you decide those languages are in your campaign, and consequently what obstacle your player needs to beat, so as not to offend the Dwarven innkeeper when inquiring about the size of the bed.

Consider trait-voting the ability to speak a particular oft-encountered language, if you want to prevent a character from becoming too much of a polyglot too easily.

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Phil’s got it!