Planet Word—the world’s first museum dedicated to words and language

Planet Word, the world’s first museum dedicated to words and language, opened in Washington, D.C., in October 2020. At its helm is Ann Friedman, a former educator and believer in the power of language. Her vision for this high-tech museum is to highlight the pivotal role that literacy and multilingualism play in the world.

Planet Word is a historical achievement. Rather fittingly, it’s based in the Franklin School, a beautiful and ornate 150-year-old National Historic Landmark. In this building, in 1880, Alexander Graham Bell sent a message using light waves from the roof -- considered the first wireless communication in history.  

Inspired by the importance of literacy

Fast forward 140 years from that pioneering first telecommunication, and many people see a crisis in literacy, especially Friedman, whose work has been motivated by this concern.  As she puts it, “there are so many ways for us to entertain ourselves that pull our eyes off books. I see reading as the foundation of a literate society that’s necessary for a strong democracy. It’s harder to get people to read.”  

She goes on to point out the benefits of being widely read, which she feels we are in danger of losing. “What do we learn when we read widely? We learn critical analysis. We widen our vocabulary. We learn empathy. We learn how characters act. And we also learn about shared values and a shared heritage of stories and narratives that bind us together as a society and culture. And that’s what we’re losing by not reading as much as we used to.” 

Of course, we do still read. We just do it differently. Posts, texts, messages, tweets, internet articles and, arguably, even this blog post all are evidence of our shortening attention spans. Consuming this “snackable” content is fine, as long as our diet doesn’t end up consisting solely of snacks.  

Snacks don’t give us the more profound level of literacy needed to emotionally engage with the world around us, something Friedman hopes to address at Planet Word by igniting people’s love of words. 

“I’m talking about a deeper level of literacy, of a literate person who has a wide vocabulary, has understanding of motivation and [reading] builds empathy for people who don’t look or sound like us. You read about them, you explore their world, that’s the kind of literacy I’m talking about.

This kind of literacy inspired Friedman to make Planet Word a reality. From the initial idea to finding the right location to bringing the right team and ideas together, the project took years of determination. All this dedication finally paid off with the overwhelmingly positive response when the doors were opened to this one-of-a-kind museum. 

Celebrating multilingualism

Because literacy is a global issue and language is foundational to the human experience, it was important to Friedman that Planet Word embraced all language, not just English. One of the largest galleries is the Spoken World Gallery.

This is devoted to the diversity of the roughly 6,500 languages spoken in the world today. Here, they’ve put on display 28 unique languages and two sign languages.

“That’s how multilingualism really fits into what we’re doing at Planet Word. We’re trying to send this message that there are lots of ways to talk. In the Spoken World Gallery, we have language ambassadors representing native speakers of all those 28 languages.”

The native-speaking language ambassadors present mini-lessons in which museum-goers can participate. In these sessions, visitors surround a 12-foot diameter globe that’s covered with 5000 LEDs suspended from the ceiling. This huge sphere connects to 15 iPads, each with at least two ambassadors inviting visitors to learn about their language, and the iPads and globe respond to the visitor’s voice.

Friedman explains how the voice-activated technology works: “You walk up the iPad and you say ‘hello,’ and you discover which country the ambassador on that iPad is coming from. And then, you actually respond to the ambassador. You try saying words and phrases in their language.

“At the very end of the mini-lesson, the large globe lights up in a design that reflects the lesson you just learned. For instance, in Hebrew our ambassador is teaching a lesson about the glottal sound ‘chet’. One of the words that the visitor is encouraged to repeat is ‘L’Chaim’, the toast to life that has the ‘chet’ sound in it. When you do that, the globe lights up with two champagne glasses clinking, so you have this positive reinforcement for trying to say something in a different language.”

The idea is that with the visual positive reinforcement, the audience will continue to look outside their own culture and experiment with other languages. 

And then there’s the ultra-high-tech Speaking Willow that greets you outside the front doors of the museum. This metal sculpture was created by Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and is motion-activated so when you walk under it, you hear 364 different languages from all over the world, coming from each branch.  

Friedman says, “There are three and a half miles of cable that connect the tree speakers to computers on the lower level of Planet Word. The cables go through the trunk of the sculpture, down into our basement. And so it's a complex engineering feat, as well as just sort of awesome and beautiful and fun. You know, to wave your arms under the branches of the tree and hear different languages being spoken”.  

Adapting to the pandemic

Planet Word, like most organizations in the world, didn’t escape the effects of COVID-19. The museum was planning to open its doors five months before it did, but it had to figure out a way to bring this highly visual and interactive centre to the public online. This was a challenge for Friedman and her team because so much of their strategy for stimulating interest in literacy centred on having a physical location that people could visit.

“The reason we're in a physical location in Washington is because I strongly believed that a museum of words and language should be in a place where people gathered and used their words with each other. So shifting to the virtual realm was difficult for me.” 

However, they did adapt, and now the museum has a global reach. Virtual field trips that were never part of the original operating plan are now successfully spreading the museum’s mission to a large audience of school children who wouldn’t have had the chance to visit it in D.C.  

“There is demand out there from teachers and even teachers of English as a second language for adults who are interested in our virtual field trip about idioms and double meaning. So that's one of the things we're doing to sort of get beyond the walls while we have to be closed,” says Friedman. 

A home for words and language

Planet Word is a long overdue celebration of literacy and language. The impressively high-tech museum is an accomplishment that Friedman is very proud of, supporting her mission “…to renew and inspire a love of words, reading, language and books for all ages.”  Friedman’s pride is well placed. Planet Word has given the study of language a contemporary, interactive and interesting platform, making it more exciting and inviting to everyone. 

To learn more about this amazing museum, visit planetwordmuseum.org.

And if you want to listen to the full podcast, go here.