Famous French People Eugène Schueller © by Robert Shepherd Vocabulary & pronunciation study by Laurent Dufour© Words are explained alongside the text Stressed syllables are underlined and in bold* Hello, you’re listening to Robert Shepherd on EnglishWaves arguably (adv.) it can be argued or and it’s time for some Famous French. maintained that, possibly In this episode we’re going to focus on a French pharmacist forefather (n.) ancestor and entrepreneur who was the founder of L'Oréal, arguably the world's leading company in the cosmetics and beauty advertising (n.) making products or services known about and space. He was also one of the forefathers of modern persuading people to buy them advertising. He is Eugène Schueller. college (n.) higher-education He was born on 20th March 1881 to German parents and he institution studied at Institut de Chimie Appliquée de Paris, which is now called Chimie Paris Tech, an elite chemical science and to graduate (vb.) to receive a engineering college. In 1907, three years after he degree graduated, Schueller developed an innovative hair-colour formula. He then formulated and manufactured his own products and sold them to Parisian hairdressers. decade (n.) period of ten years Before the end of the decade, Schueller registered his company as the Société Française de Teintures Inoffensives pour Cheveux. The company would later become the one we all know as L'Oréal. In 1922, Schueller’s wife Louise gave birth to their only child bond (n.) feeling that unites one Liliane, but Louise sadly died when their daughter was just person to another five years old. Schueller and Liliane formed a close bond. She began working for him when she was just 15 and he later married her British governess. to break new ground (exp.) to do While Schueller was breaking new ground with his research something original and innovation in the interest of beauty and cosmetics, his to provide (vb.) to give, supply life away from the business was a little controversial. Schueller provided financial support and held meetings for La Cagoule, a violent French fascist-leaning, anti-Semitic and fascist-leaning (adj.) tending to anti-communist group, at L'Oréal’s headquarters. fascism Its leader formed a political party called Mouvement Social headquarters (n.) centre from Révolutionnaire, which in Occupied France supported the which operations are directed Vichy collaboration with the conquerors from Nazi Germany. worse (adj.) comparative of ‘bad’ To make matters worse, L'Oréal hired several members of the group as executives after the Second World War. One of to hire (vb.) to employ someone them, the politician and businessman Jacques Corrèze, was for wages made CEO of L'Oréal’s US operation. executive (n.) person who Despite the controversies, Schueller’s L'Oréal continued to manages or directs other people in a company thrive and set the benchmark all competitors are measured against. CEO = Chief Executive Officer rd Eugène Schueller died on 23 August 1957 in Paris. He left his to thrive (vb.) to prosper company to his daughter Liliane Bettencourt, who at the age of 93 is said to be the richest woman in the world today. benchmark (n.) level of quality that can be used as a standard Stay tuned to EnglishWaves. against which to compare other things * Tip ! Syllable stress can help us to understand spoken words. Let’s take the words ‘politician’ and ‘political’ as an example. First count the syllables : ‘pol.i.ti.cian’ has 4 syllables, ‘po.lit.i.cal’ has 4 syllables. Syllable stress is when you say one of the syllables slightly louder and with more emphasis. So in this example we say : politician and political . .