I actually got two books that came directly from my experience as a teacher of English as a Second Language. When I first would meet a new classroom of students, they were often newly arrived in the United States. My class would be one of the first ones they would take, English as a Second Language, and they were often really nervous. As an icebreaker, I used to ask them about animal noises in their language. So, in English, what does a dog say? “Bow-wow,” or, “Arf, arf.” But dogs all over the world don’t say that. I learned, for example, that in Korea a dog says, “Mung-mung.” When I take it into schools, I’ll say, in this country, “Does a dog say, ‘mung-mung’?”
The kids will all go, “No!”
I’ll say, “What about this? [Barking] Mung-mung! Mung-mung!”
In Russia, a dog says, “Gahv-gahv.” I learned that there are these wonderful animal noises all over the world that people make. So, I have a book called Mung-Mung!, which is a guessing game book of animal noises around the world.
