diff --git a/extensions/wikidata/src/org/openrefine/wikidata/schema/WbLanguageVariable.java b/extensions/wikidata/src/org/openrefine/wikidata/schema/WbLanguageVariable.java
index 081019e5b..1b7cba60b 100644
--- a/extensions/wikidata/src/org/openrefine/wikidata/schema/WbLanguageVariable.java
+++ b/extensions/wikidata/src/org/openrefine/wikidata/schema/WbLanguageVariable.java
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package org.openrefine.wikidata.schema;
 
 import org.openrefine.wikidata.schema.exceptions.SkipSchemaExpressionException;
+import org.wikidata.wdtk.datamodel.interfaces.WikimediaLanguageCodes;
 
 import com.google.refine.model.Cell;
 
@@ -13,8 +14,14 @@ public class WbLanguageVariable extends WbVariableExpr<String> {
     public String fromCell(Cell cell, ExpressionContext ctxt)
             throws SkipSchemaExpressionException {
         if (cell.value != null && !cell.value.toString().isEmpty()) {
-            // TODO some validation here?
-            return cell.value.toString();
+            String code = cell.value.toString().trim();
+            try {
+                // this just checks that the language code is known
+                WikimediaLanguageCodes.getLanguageCode(code);
+                return cell.value.toString();
+            } catch(IllegalArgumentException e) {
+                ;
+            }
         }
         throw new SkipSchemaExpressionException();
     }
diff --git a/extensions/wikidata/src/org/openrefine/wikidata/schema/WbLocationConstant.java b/extensions/wikidata/src/org/openrefine/wikidata/schema/WbLocationConstant.java
index e8e4476fd..78d0075f2 100644
--- a/extensions/wikidata/src/org/openrefine/wikidata/schema/WbLocationConstant.java
+++ b/extensions/wikidata/src/org/openrefine/wikidata/schema/WbLocationConstant.java
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@ import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonProperty;
 
 public class WbLocationConstant implements WbExpression<GlobeCoordinatesValue> {
     
+    public static final double defaultPrecision = GlobeCoordinatesValue.PREC_TEN_MICRO_DEGREE;
+    
     private String value;
     private GlobeCoordinatesValue parsed;
     
@@ -29,7 +31,7 @@ public class WbLocationConstant implements WbExpression<GlobeCoordinatesValue> {
     public static GlobeCoordinatesValue parse(String expr) throws ParseException {
         double lat = 0;
         double lng = 0;
-        double precision = GlobeCoordinatesValue.PREC_TEN_MICRO_DEGREE;
+        double precision = defaultPrecision;
         String[] parts = expr.split("[,/]");
         if (parts.length >= 2 && parts.length <= 3) {
            try {