Reading the Package

Reading the Package / En lisant l’emballage

Just two countries in the entire world have English and French as their only official languages: Cameroon and Canada.

For us Canadians, this means that packaged products are required by federal law to be labeled in English and French. This regulation was designed to ease commerce between English- and French-speaking populations. But it’s had an extraordinarily positive side-effect: every pantry, dining table, and trip to the grocery store is an opportunity for informal language acquisition.

Food packaging is a surprisingly ideal way to pick up new vocabulary. Even if you don’t understand the French, the English subtitles are right there to help you along. And once you figure out what the French means, your learning experience is paired with a concrete object and a sensory experience (yum), which act as mnemonics, helping you remember the new word. And unless you can polish off a box of Lucky Charms in one sitting (which is entirely possible for me), you’ll have the opportunity to reread that box on several, separate occasions, which further ingrains the new word in your brain.

Learning another language gives us insight into the strengths and shortcomings of our own language, it gives us new ways of seeing the world around us, and it even reveals something of our history. At the very least, it’s something to entertain us over breakfast.

Below is a growing collection of packages that helped me expand my French vocabulary while offering insights beyond my dining table. The images are titled in English, French, and the literal translation from French into English.

Visitors to Canada are often surprised to find out that not everyone here speaks French. But second language acquisition is a life-long process that all literate Canadians engage in when we read the label. For my fellow Canadians who don’t consider themselves bilingual, perhaps the following images will convince you otherwise. At least, I hope they will inspire you to spend more time reading the package. (Click here for my literature review on Second Language Learning and Bilingual Environmental Print. Comments welcome!)

Vinegar / vinaigre
(sour wine)

Vinegar is such a ubiquitous ingredient, it’s surprising how often its etymology goes unnoticed. The French word “vinaigre” (notice the slight variation in spelling) is a compound word composed of “vin” and “aigre”. “Vin” is French for “wine” and “aigre” means “sour”. Vinegar is what you get when your wine has been sitting in the cellar for too long.

Herbal Tea / tisane
(tisane)

Does mint tea have caffeine? The English word "tea" can ambiguously refer to a beverage that is caffeinated or a beverage that is caffeine-free. Mistaking either one for the other can have disastrous consequences. In French, this confusion doesn't arise because there is one word for caffeinated tea "thé" and a different word for non-caffeinated tea, "tisane". English also has the word "tisane" for referring to a steeped non-caffeinated herbal beverage, yet it isn’t widely used in Canada. “Herbal tea” is commonly used to refer to caffeine-free beverages, but this term is misleading and can still lead to confusion.

Sunflower / tournesol
(turns to sun)

The word “sunflower” beautifully describes this plant’s circular face with its yellow, ray-like petals that resemble the sun. And the French word “tournesol” is equally beautiful. "Tournesol" comes from the verb "tourner", which means “to turn” and "sol" which means “sun”. While you won’t see sunflowers turning to the sun in real-time (they turn rather slowly), the name "tournesol" brings this plant's hidden movement to the forefront.

Flaxseed / graines de lin
(seeds of lin)

What do flaxseed and bed sheets have in common? Bilingual food labels hit and the answer. The French “graines de lin” literally translates as “seeds of lin”, which is short for the latin Linum usitatissimum, a plant which produces both the fibers used to make linen and the seeds used to make fancy yogurt parfaits. Once again, a lesson in plant biology is sitting in the kitchen cupboard (though linseed oil should be refrigerated!)

Cauliflower/chou-fleur
(cabbage flower)

The French word for "cabbage", “chou-fleur”, literally means "cabbage flower", revealing this vegetable’s genetic lineage. Cabbage and cauliflower are both the same species, Brassica oleracea. The English name hints too at the plant’s biology if you know a bit of Latin: the Latin “caulis” means "cabbage".

Dandelion / pissenlit
(piss in bed)

The French word for "dandelion" is hard to forget once you know what it means. This word’s etymology reveals that is was thought to be a diuretic (something that makes you have to pee). “En” translates as “in”. And “lit” means “bed”. Put that together and I’m sure you can figure out the rest.

Bouillon / bouillon
(came from boiling)

The word “bouillon” is spelled the same in English and French. It’s a borrowed word, meaning we adopted this French word into our language (which is common for culinary terms: e.g., sauté, hors d'oeuvre, sous-vide). "Bouillon" comes from the French verb “bouillir” which means “to boil”. And the suffix “-on” indicates the object's origin; this thing came from boiling. You've also probably seen this suffix in the word for ham “jambon”, where "jambe" means "leg".

Yeast / levure
(that which will cause to rise)

The French word for yeast, “levure”, is by far the better name for the fungus that levens our bread because it invokes mystery and magic. “Levure” comes from the French verb “lever” which means “to rise”. The suffix “-ure” describes the resultant state produced by the rising action. In English, we just have "leavening agent", which lacks the simplicity and alchemical connotations of “levure”. The English word also falls short of the French version because it's a blanket term that refers not only to yeast but to chemical raising agents as well (e.g. baking soda).

Ham / jambon
(stuff from the leg)

“Honey roasted pig leg meat” sound less appetizing than “honey roasted ham”. Though, “ham” is just an elegant way of saying “pig-leg-meat”.

The English “ham” comes from the French word for “leg”, “jambe”. Say it aloud—“jambe”—and you can almost hear the word “ham”. Jambe, ham, jambe, ham. The suffix “-on” simply means “comes from”. So “jambon” just means stuff that comes from the leg.

Most grocery stores sell sterile packages of neatly sliced ham alongside similar packages of turkey and roast beef. Knowing the French word for ham makes buying packaged meat a slightly less alienating experience, bringing you a little closer to the animal that’s about to become a delicious sandwich.

Potatoe / Pomme de terre
(Apple from the earth)

In French, a potato is called ‘pomme de terre’, which translates as ‘apple from the earth’. The French term elevates the potato, recognizing its value by likening it to a sweet and delicious fruit—a fruit from the earth.

Thousand Island / Mille-îles
(thousand islands)

The origins Thousand Island salad dressing are highly disputed. But what is indisputable (or perhaps less disputable) is that the French name for the dressing, “Mille-îles” (‘mille’ means ‘thousand’ and’îles’ means ‘isles’, or ‘islands’) rolls off the tongue in a way that evokes the smooth and creamy texture of the salad dressing itself.

Stir-fry / Sauté
(jumped)

The French word for stir-fry, ‘sauté’ (pronounced [sew-tay] not [saw-tay’]), is the past tense of the French verb ‘sauter’, which means ‘to jump’. Put some vegetables in a hot pan, move the pan in such a way that the vegetables jump around, and you have yourself a stir-fry or a sauté. ‘Sauté’ is not be confused with ‘satay’ (pronounced [sah-tay]), which is an Indonesian dish.

Cotton Candy / Barbe à papa
(papa’s beard)

While the term ‘cotton candy’ likens this billowing pink treat to the fluffy, airy, pull-apart texture of cotton, ‘Barbe à papa’, or ‘papa’s beard’, conjures a different, perhaps equally delightful image: a soft, wispy, conical beard.

Brand Name Products vs. Private Label Products

Brand name products (like “Cheeze Whiz”) are identical in English and French. But their private label counterparts are not trademarked, and so these packages bear bilingual product names. Product designers stretch the limits of language to come up with names that signal this product is another version of the brand name product. All the linguistic devices used to create catchy names (e.g. alliteration, consonance, play on words) often don’t translate well across linguistic lines. As a result, the products below at once reveal how language is sometimes not translatable, and efforts to do so are often a great source of entertainment.

cheese-tastic! / fromidable!
(untranslatable)

“cheese-tastic!” sounds childish and playful and therefore approximates "Cheez Whiz". But there is no way to capture this sentiment with the French words for “cheese” (“fromage”) and “fantastic” (“fatastique”). So the product developers created an entirely different childish and playful name: “fromidable!”, which is a portmanteau (i.e. a mixture of two words) of “formidable” (“excellent”) and “fromage” (“cheese”).

Household Products

Paper Towel / essuie-tout
(wipes up all)

The French word for “paper-towel” does a far better job at describing this kitchen-marvel's seemingly endless applications. “Essuie” comes from the French verb “essuyer” which means “to wipe up”, “wipe away”, or “to dry something” as you would with a towel. And “tout” simply means “all”. While the English word merely describes this object's material composition—which isn't too important practically speaking—the French captures the pragmatic nature of paper towel: this stuff can be used to wipe up all things.

Petroleum Jelly / gelée de pétrole
(jelly that comes from petrol)

The English and French generic names for Vaseline are not all that different: “petroleum jelly” and “gelée de pétrole”. Yet the difference is enough to shed new light on what this stuff is made of. “Gelée de pétrole” may tip you off that this clear, odourless, household staple comes from petrol. More specifically, it's a by-product from crude oil production.

Goldfish / poisson rouge
(redfish)

Carassius auratus, the stereotypical species of fish to keep as a pet, exists in two parallel universes. In the English-speaking universe, this fish is known as “Goldfish”. However, in the French-speaking universe, this fish is known as “poisson rouge”, which literally translates as “redfish”.

There is a trivial humour in the fact that humanity is split along linguistic lines into one camp that believes the fish is gold, and another that believes the fish is red. It’s comical to imagine two houses, side-by-side in some bilingual place in Canada, where one family has a pet goldfish and another family has a pet redfish, and both pets look identical.