Lies! (Or not.)

I found out that my French teachers have lied to me all these years! Or they use these words differently in Québécois French. One of the two. The word "salade" does not mean, as I was told, "salad". It means lettuce. The word "Chou" which I was told was "lettuce" is used like "honey" is as an endearment. So when I tried to explain to my host family that at my house we make salad without lettuce, just the tomatoes and the onions and whatever, they had no idea what I was babbling about. But we got it together and it was funny after the fact.