diff --git a/hylang/README-short.txt b/hylang/README-short.txt
index 15775c7d1..951f20d8b 100644
--- a/hylang/README-short.txt
+++ b/hylang/README-short.txt
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Hylang is a lisp-like language that is embedded in Python.
+Hy is a dialect of the Lisp programming language designed to interoperate with Python by translating expressions into Python's abstract syntax tree (AST).
diff --git a/java/README.md b/java/README.md
index 98aff7eaa..20bad4bd0 100644
--- a/java/README.md
+++ b/java/README.md
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-Java is a concurrent, class-based, object-oriented language specifically designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible. It is inteneded to allow application developers to "write once, run anywhere", meaning that code that runs on one platform does not need to be recompiled to run on another.
+Java is a concurrent, class-based, object-oriented language specifically designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible. It is intended to allow application developers to "write once, run anywhere", meaning that code that runs on one platform does not need to be recompiled to run on another.
 
 Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
 
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
 
 For this image, the most straight-forward use is to use a java container as both the build environment as well as the runtime environment. In your Dockerfile, you can do something along the lines of the following will compile and run your project.
 
-    FROM java
+    FROM java:7
     ADD . /usr/src/myapp
     WORKDIR /usr/src/myapp
     RUN javac Main.java
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ It is not always appropriate to run your app inside a container. In instances wh
 
     docker run --rm -v "$(pwd)":/usr/src/myapp -w /usr/src/myapp java javac Main.java
 
-This will add your current directory as a volume to the comtainer, set the working directory to the volume, and run the command `javac Main.java` which will tell java to compile the code in Main.java and output the java class file to Main.class. Alternatively, if you have a make file, you can instead run the make command inside your container.
+This will add your current directory as a volume to the container, set the working directory to the volume, and run the command `javac Main.java` which will tell java to compile the code in Main.java and output the java class file to Main.class. Alternatively, if you have a make file, you can instead run the make command inside your container.
 
     docker run --rm -v "$(pwd)":/usr/src/myapp -w /usr/src/myapp java make