"Let no one be discouraged by the belief that there is nothing that one man or woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills, against misery, ignorance, and injustice.  Few will the have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a single portion of life's events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.  It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped.  Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
Robert F. Kennedy

The creation of the International Language Culture Museum and Research Center (ILCMARC) comes at a critical time.  Because of the ever-rapid advancement of communications technologies, this is an opportune time to address the future of languages and cultures.  As the new millennium evolves out of its infancy, the need arises to reach and inform people (academics as well as lay people) on the nature of languages and culture, their histories from earliest times to the present, who they are/were and where they lived and spoke their languages. 

The birth of the Internet and its rapid technological advances has made global communications a reality for some, but not for others.  Societies are at the crossroads of embracing a future that has the potential to connect cultures and languages.  By narrowing and ultimately closing the Digital Divide (low-tech vs. high-tech) via an open dialogue, people, the world over, may start to recognize common grounds for understanding of the threads of life that are woven into our human selves. 

In this new millennium, a powerful need arises for a program to reach out and inform more people about other cultures and languages.  A need exists to create alliances with like-minded international institutions and organizations about the importance of disseminating language and culture information through concrete initiatives.  These institutions can, collectively, pursue policies in which languages and cultures are preserved and displayed together for posterity, thereby, leaving future generations with a legacy in cultural heritage, rich in tradition.

The International Language and Culture Foundation (ILCF) is recommending the creation and establishment of an International Language and Culture Museum and Research Center.  In doing so, we seek to enhance the linguistic and cultural world heritages by exhibiting the languages of the world from the earliest times to the present through research, education, along with language and culture awareness and preservation.

As a cultural institution that is recognized nationally and internationally, The International Language and Culture Museum and Research Center, through the preservation of the world’s linguistic heritage that has often been insufficiently appreciated or understood, will promote understanding and respect among all races, religions and cultures, including values that encourage peace and tolerance in international relations.

The museum and research center will exhibit the history of world languages and cultures from the earliest times to the present, including those that vanished and those that are vanishing.  The research part of the museum will define the intimate connections among people, their languages and cultures as well as conducting scientific, linguistic studies of the nature, structure, psychology, and social aspects inherent in languages and cultures worldwide.  This project will result in a dynamic living organism, which will be presented in a museum that shows our past and present languages and cultures.  It will also be a cutting-edge research center for scientific inquiry; the results of which are to show and validate our humanity as well to discover new aspects of languages, cultures, and users of languages.

This proposal develops a model for a museum and research center of world languages and cultures for the purpose of showing human connections respecting all human life.   

The International Language and Culture Museum and Research Center will house a history of the world’s languages and cultures through permanent, tangible artifacts, written and visual interpretive interactive exhibits, educational programs, and international conferences concerning issues relating to developing peace, language and culture initiatives.  In doing so, it seeks to enhance linguistic and cultural world heritages by exhibiting the languages of the world from the earliest times to the present through research and education, along with language and culture awareness and preservation.

The dissemination of the magnitude of this project, in connection with affiliated non-governmental organizations, promotes the discovery of cultural and linguistic heritage as a vehicle for dialogue, peace and reconciliation.

All programs stemming from the creation of this institution will constitute a network of scholars called upon to interact at the international level, and it will give rise to the establishment of a forum that will feature the most current and remarkable initiatives to serve as “best practices” in the areas of language and culture preservation, research and public awareness education.

Today more than ever, we need to reinforce efforts on a global and community scale to build collectively and at all levels a Culture of Peace in conjunction with UNESCO’s International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World (2001-2010).

Some, but not all, critical issues facing many groups of people on earth today include the degradation of languages and cultures, and ways of life.  Without public awareness of these issues, some people will continue to be outside the connections without a voice within the human race. 

Expected Outcomes

The International Language and Culture Museum and Research Center (ILCMARC) project intends to be innovative and scientific in its approach to language and culture through the development of a new model of organization and world cooperation, and to the intensive character of the research methodology of the organization.

The following outcomes are expected:

• Creation of the base structure for the implementation of the International Language and Culture Museum and Research Center;

• Development of world research networks and innovative language collection techniques, both cross-cultural and interdisciplinary in nature. Participation around the world by research teams across borders will be valuable for research and to potential users and their beneficiaries;

• Contribution to development of regional, national and international economic, political, scientific and social networks and co-operation;

• The creation of a database, interactive web site, and workshops will produce valuable dialogue by working with “future projects” and other innovative organizational forms of interaction and formulation of practical projects to be realized through information dissemination;

• Competence development in user-communities, e.g. scientists, students, professors, teachers, local and central governments, firms, organizations of industries, social movements, and voluntary organizations;

• A number of project publications and other media (journals, newsletters, videos) relevant to the international scientific language and culture community, to culture tourism firms and organizations, to professionals in the field of languages and culture;

• Public schools across the country and worldwide will have access to research outcomes for classroom applications;

• Public presentation of final results based on scientific research via print and visual media will be available to mass media;

• Discrete reports keyed to cross-cultural and interdisciplinary, cooperation processes will be open to schools and universities;

• Contribution to the development of theories and methodologies for the classification and organization of languages and cultures worldwide;

• Guidelines for the creation of the International Language and Culture Museum and Research Center.