Helga without the H

I live outside DC, which I believe is one of the best cities in the world where museums are concerned. Of course everybody knows the Smithsonian, the federal institutions, the monuments and memorials, and the historic sites. Plus countless private museums, plenty of which (Spy Museum, Holocaust Museum, etc.) are as extensive and famous as any of their Smithsonian neighbors. I’ve heard of them all, or so I thought. Then last summer we had some family in town, and I was confused beyond belief when they told us about their visit to something called Planet Word. I had never heard of this place. I thought maybe it was something small, or on the fringes of the city. Naw. It was big, with its own full building, and downtown in an area I know decently well. What were they talking about, and how have I never heard of it before? They tried to describe the exhibits to me, and I just didn’t get it. Interactive stuff, and you walk in and words appear on a wall or something? I couldn’t wrap by brain around it.

I’d largely forgotten about this mystery museum until earlier this month when I announced my museum-visiting NY resolution online, and a friend asked if I’d be interested in checking out Planet Word with her. YES! Yes I was interested! What the heck is this mystery place?

It turns out there’s a reason I’d never heard of this place; it opened smack dab in the middle of the pandemic. Might it be the only thing in DC that was actually growing during lockdowns, BLM protests, and insurrections while everything else was getting boarded up? Maybe! Either way, I see it as a very welcome addition to the city. It’s housed in the Franklin School Building, a gorgeous 19th century public school located right on Franklin Park. The building’s architecture and location definitely add to the charm and the experience. Something about being in there just feels inspiring.

I still didn’t really understand what we were about to see as we approached the museum. I’d read that it featured interactive exhibits about language, which is pretty much what my visiting family had also said. But… like… what did that actually mean? Now that I’ve seen the museum, I was to describe it the exact same way. And now it makes total sense to me. But it’s probably still too vague for those who haven’t been. So here we go…

Before you even start the exhibits, there are clues as to what this place might be like, but I still wasn’t sure if there would be actual substance. In the courtyard outside is a statue of a willow tree. There are little white cups dangling from the branches, and when you stand under them, they light up and a little speaker inside plays voices. I couldn’t understand what anyone was saying (I’m guessing foreign languages?), but it was kinda cool to listen to the voices change as you walk around. That was neat and fun, but still left me wondering whether the museum inside would be substantive, or just gimmicks like this.

The cuteness continues in the bathroom, where the walls were peppered with fun euphemisms for using the facilities. As someone who loves potty humor, I very much appreciated this touch. Apparently I’m not the only one, because the museum was a finalist in an America’s Best Restroom Contest in 2021 (according to Wikipedia.)

Finally, it was time for the museum itself. And I’ve gotta say, I loved it. It’s not the type of place where you could spend all day, as there weren’t really that many exhibits. But I think they could certainly keep expanding if interest remains high. Speaking of interest, this place was full! Not over-packed (they recommend reserving tickets ahead of time, so I assume that have a max capacity), but it was definitely a super popular place, and everyone seemed to be having a great time.

The two main keys to this place’s success, in my opinions, are
1. The creative, interactive, and varied nature of the displays.
2. The ability target the information to multiple ages and experience levels, usually within the same exhibit.

The first room (if you go in their recommended order) is probably the least interesting to children. It’s all about different languages. A giant light-up globe in the middle of a giant light-filled room is the most visually stunning element, but it frankly didn’t really do anything. The substance was located on a few dozen videos playing on stands all around the globe. They contained videos of people from different countries around the world, who explained elements of their own language that are different from English. They ask us to to repeat after them, and you’re supposed to talk into a microphone. The display mimics a conversation, but obviously the video people are just recordings. Still, it was cute and informative. The walls are lined with larger screens and attached headphones. Each wall screen taught about another element of language. I watched one about endangered languages (in particular indigenous languages, like Hawaiian) and one about made-up languages (like Klingon.) The wall monitors asked quiz questions, and we could select our answers on the touchscreen before receiving a lecture on why our answer was right or wrong. So, a very academic and informative room where a nerdy adult could probably kill a couple hours if they listened to every single monitor from start to finish. Kids, though, would likely get bored pretty quickly.

The next room, however, was amazing. It’s basically just a documentary about the history of the English language. You could get all the same content just listening to the audio on a podcast. But the presentation was super engaging. Instead of a video screen, one wall is covered in thousands of words in white blocky 3D text. The audience sits or stands along the opposite wall, where we can talk into colorful microphones to do a call-and-response when prompted by the narrator. As the video plays, whenever the narrator talks about a word, it lights up on the screen. The narrator will ask us a question about certain words, and everyone in the audience started yelling our words into the microphones. It was pretty obvious after a while that the microphones were just props, but honestly it didn’t matter. The entire audience was super into it, from the littlest kids to the nerdiest adults. I realize this description doesn’t sound that exciting, but basically this thing was written and crafted at just the right level to be very engaging. It was simple and fun enough that kids enjoyed it. But it was nerdy and informative that I enjoyed it. That was a tough balance, and they executed perfectly. After the video (which was maybe 5 minutes start to finish?) there’s a 90 second pause where people can walk up and are encouraged to take selfies in front of the wall, which of course plenty of people did.

Next up was a karaoke room. They never played a full song; just one or two verses and one or two times through the chorus. Before and during the song, the video explained some element of language that is being used in the song. Honestly, I don’t think anyone was actually paying attention to the educational part in this one. But the singing was fun. They had a great mix of kid songs (Frozen, Moana, etc), older-kid-friendly pop (Taylor Swift), rap (nobody went up for Eminem though I was very tempted, but a whole group of teenaged girls were doing a song I didn’t recognize as we left and they were having a blast), and older stuff for us geezers. Mara and I sang Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash, which we frankly butchered. I learned nothing, but it was still fun, and it was fun seeing families and other folks of different age groups and backgrounds all getting into it together.

The next room was about how language is used for humor. They had giant cutouts hidden behind a wall, and you can take turns holding up the cutouts and making the people on the other side guess the expression. Perfect exhibit! Very hands-on for the kids, and legitimately fun puzzles for the adults. See if you can figure ours out:

This room also featured a game where you read jokes off a screen and try to make your opponent laugh. We had to eventually give up on this game because we both eventually managed to go completely dead inside and weren’t scoring any points. There wasn’t really anything to learn here, but it was still fun. On the wall was a display where we supposedly got to help the AI learn how humor works. It displayed a cartoon with two different captions, and we selected the funnier caption. Then the AI analyzed why we found one funny, gave us a little lecture about sarcasm or absurdity or whatever, presented another cartoon with new captions. This repeated a couple times. This was another example where it was pretty clear that our input didn’t actually matter, and we were just watching a clever video instead of actually interacting with a robot. But it was really well done, and more fun and engaging than just reading a wall of text about humor.

Next up was the “library.” It was dark and beautiful and had mirrors on the ceilings to make the bookcases along the walls seem like they were super tall. The idea here seemed to be to get people excited about books and reading. Some books were decorative, but all along the walls were forward-facing books that you could take down and place on little stands on the tables. When you open the book up, a sensor detects which book you are reading, and a video projects down onto and around your book, describing what it special or important about that particular book. They had books for all different ages and interests. This room could have taken all day if you wanted to get through all the books, but we only grabbed a couple. Here’s Persepolis:

That was it for displays. We walked through an empty room with a bunch of weird holes and sign indicating there was usually a display here that was closed or under construction or something. I saw it later on a postcard, so I’m guessing it was something pretty cool that we missed. Oh well. The only thing left except for the gift shop was a photo booth where they pop words onto the screen and you’re supposed to act them out. I’m not sure what we were supposed to really learn here, either, beyond just considering how expressive, specific, and varied adjectives and be. We weren’t too excited about our prompts, but still, it was free and kinda fun, plus it’s a neat souvenir:

Bottom line, this museum was great. But it wasn’t perfect and there’s definitely room for improvement. Mara’s main critique was that she wished they’d set up more headphones at a lot of the exhibits. I have to agree with her here. There was definitely space to cram a few more people around some of the exhibits, but we were limited by the numbers of headphones. The early nerdy videos only had 2 spots available each, for example. I think the biggest limitation was in the library, where there were only a handful of those video stands available and we gave up our spot so kids can have it. I was also wondering whether it was interesting enough for little kids. To consult on this, I tried calling my 7 year old niece, who I thought had been among the group who visited the museum last summer. Alas, she only did natural history museum, and the adults went to Planet Word alone. So I didn’t get the expert opinion on this one. Regardless, I suspect that kids would enjoy it, but younger kids might run out of steam pretty quickly.

That being said, the museum is also on a pay-what-you-want system. I think this is great. Families with less resources can still visit for free. Families with kids who are likely to lose interest in 10 minutes can visit for cheap. Older folks who are most likely to get the most out of the experience can pay more. Which basically means that, no matter what, this is a high value museum. Total bang-for-your-buck. Cuz you can to choose your bang, and choose your buck. All that being said, while this place is definitely worth a visit, it’s not a full day’s excursion. If travel into downtown is a hassle for you, make sure to also plan something else on the same day to make it worth the travel. But if you’ve got an hour or two to kill and are in the neighborhood, definitely do not miss it.

Finally, huge thanks to Mara for being my museum buddy yesterday! This is definitely a museum that’s more fun with a friend or family member (though going alone would be totally fine, too. Just make a new friend to do the joke-telling game with you.)