- Kathy Stevens
Executive Director, MCAEL
5/15/2024
A few months ago, we took a staff trip to visit Planet Word, the Washington DC museum “where language comes to life.” It’s an immersive, technology-forward experience that drives home the beauty, power, and wonder of the spoken word. I’ve now visited three times since its opening in 2019, and each visit builds upon the last.
Did you know that there are 6,000 spoken languages in the world today? Yet most people speak one of 23 languages. Language has been, and continues to be, used to wield power. Hawaiian was legally banned in the US In the late 1800’s. Following a military coup in 1980, Kurdish was banned in Turkey. The dominance of Spanish in Latin America speaks to the conquest of the Spanish, which wiped out countless local languages in the region.
Language also represents the melding of cultures, and a shared history. English is full of words with roots in French, Spanish, and other languages (part of why English is such a tough language to learn).
But as language can be used to oppress, it can also be used to liberate – to open up possibilities. On every visit to Planet Word, I think about MCAEL’s work to increase English language learning opportunities and how learning English opens doors for those new to this country. The ability to communicate is powerful indeed.
