Programming exercises for learning new languages

pinkfloydhomer writes: When learning a new programming language or library framework, I find that the most effective method is to work on a real project. The project shouldn't be too big or advanced of course, but it shouldn't be a toy project either.

I usually write a small game or something like that. But of course, that doesn't necessarily take me through the entire language or framework. I think several different kinds of projects would be needed for that. Maybe one focusing on graphics, one focusing on networking, one focusing on database access, etc.

So please give your suggestions for small-but-not-too-small projects that will be instructive to do to learn a new language or framework.