New BábógBaby teddy bear speaks Irish

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Back in 2007, Adrian Devane was on the lookout for Irish language toys. He had a little daughter, and wanted to learn Irish. However, he didn’t find many options, so he started to think how to create his own toy. BábógBaby was born.

BábógBaby teddy bear.

Here’s an interview with Adrian about this new toy. The toy teaches 33 words in relation to numbers, colours and shapes, by pressing on different parts of the teddy bear.

(Eoin:) BábógBaby is your creation, what is it?
(Adrian:) BábógBaby (BB) was set up to make educational tools for babies, toddlers and children. BB is the company’s first product.

What’s your connection with the Irish language?
I live in the Gaeltacht here in Moycullen, Co. Galway with my wife Karen and our 4 year old daughter Robyn. We try to speak as much Irish as we can.

What did you do before this venture?
I worked for 12 years in Film and TV production mostly on feature films in the production department.

Who in Ireland are you targetting? Is the “general” population open to this idea?
We are targeting parents, who want to give their children a good chance to learn some early cúpla focal. It makes a great alternative present for uncles, aunties and Grandparents.

Do you find that perception of the Irish language has changed in anyway in Ireland?
Yes, Irish is now kewl. It’s popular and used alot more in recent years.

Are you getting interest from outside of Ireland? Do you foresee it to be an important part?
We have had some interest from Europe and the US. The biggest market will be the Irish market for our Irish version. Our recent award in the UK opens up the market for and English version.

What was the most difficult part of getting this far with BábógBaby?
Deciding on the design and packaging on time to have it here for Christmas 2010 has been tough. But we got here.

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After Christmas 2010, how do you intend on furthering the reach of this concept?
We have interest from toy distributors abroad who will get it out into the Irish shops around the world. We will continue marketing our website and brand for online sales worldwide.

For people in Ireland, and elsewhere, interested in buying BábógBaby, what should they do?
They should go to our BUY NOW website www.babogbaby.com and buy it online, and we will get it out within 1-3 days.

I am a pig urine??

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Ah, good old Google Translate.

I don’t have a Facebook account (because it’s trendy not to have one). But my wife showed me a post by a friend of both of us.

The friend posted the following:

Buiochas le dhia ta mo ras rite!!ta me ar muin na muice!!!

He’s over the moon that he has finished running a race he was competing in.

Now, he’s left out the sínte fadaí (accent marks). And there’s a couple of mistakes (I make many myself). But I’m happy that he’s practicing Irish and I understood what he means.

But Google Translate ain’t so forgiving! In an attempt to understand, my wife submitted the text in for a translation.

The result?

Thank god my system run! I am a pig urine!!!

Fair play Google! I tried it myself later today, and got a slightly different response:

Thank god my system run! I am on the pig urine!

A slight improvement, but this is a lesson in not ignoring one’s fadaí!

(Note if you’re lost: mún=urine)

Coming up in March: Seachtain na Gaelige and St. Patrick’s Day

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March is a great month for everything Irish! It starts with Seachtain na Gaelige and rolls into St. Patrick’s Festivals all around the country and the world.

Seachtain na Gaelige is a celebration of everything Irish – music, literature, poetry, theatre, film, you name it. Different activities are organized all over the country by local councils, schools, libraries and other bodies all with one main purpose: keeping the Irish culturealive and kicking THROUGH the use of Irish language. Every year a CD comes out with a mix of popular Irish songs originally recorded in English, but for this special occasion translated into Irish and rerecorded. Well worth buying!
Eventhough the name suggests it’s a week long event, it actually spreads out over 2 weeks. This year it’s all happening between 5th and 17th of March. Check out their website for the schedule of all the activities!

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Firefox Irish dictionary search engine

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Firefox has a handy search box. Currently its default search engine is Google. But you can also add other search engines that directly search Bing.com, Amazon.com and the likes.

Now there is also an Irishionary.com search engine for Firefox (see the official addon page at Mozilla.org). It lets you search the Irishionary Irish dictionary directly from Firefox. The extension was officially accepted by Mozilla this week. Once installed, it looks like this in my Firefox:
Irish dictionaryt search engine in Firefox

Add to Firefox: You can add this search engine to your Firefox at Mozilla.org.

Add to Chrome: Chrome also accepts custom search engines. To add this to Chrome, first visit Irishionary.com (so that it detects the custom search engine). Then in Chrome click Options -> Basic -> Search engines.

Add to Internet Explorer: In Internet Explorer, you could try Tools -> Manage Add-ons -> Search Providors although I haven’t tested this.