Hello,I am studying French with a private tutor,who was born and raised in France,so French is his maternal language.The lessons go like this:We work some books where I each lesson consists of a text,which I read out loud and the teacher fixes my pronunciation,I translate it so I can show I understand what the text says,I underline unknown words and write them separately with the translation so I keep and archive of that.Next,we do reading comprehension exercises,writing exercises,where I am given a topic and I write a composition which my teacher corrects and I study Grammar and now we do listening comprehension exercises where I struggle a little bit.

I started to compensate by listening as much French as possible,writing down(transcribing what I hear),but I am slow at this and there are words I can tell what they mean when I see them written,but I do not recognize them when I hear them being spoken.Many times,since French are being spoken fast,I loose context.

My teacher seems content with my progress though.

I have started the habit of typing words in Google translate to hear the accent when I study at home.Is that a good strategy or perhaps the google translate pronunciation is off?I study French for 4 months or so give or take and started from scratch.English is not my first language either.My goal is to take the B2 exam next year and maybe continue for the C1 degree if I pass.My B2 exams are next summer.

My personal goal is to be able to understand,speak and write in French is a good level.From the discussions I had with my teacher all of his students do well in the writing part and comprehension part of the exam,mediocre in the speaking part and bad,average at the listening comprehension.They get 11,12,13 out of 25 at best.

Regards

I sometimes used Google translate to look up words quickly and/or to hear them. But sometimes there are differences in how it says it and how I have heard it in public. I know sometimes the translations are off, and was wondering about the pronunciations

I just noticed the "Listen" button, and tried it out. The (female) voice sounds remarkably non-artificial compared to all other synthetic speech efforts I've heard in the past. The pronunciation also sounds pretty accurate to my amateur ear, hence my question.

Here's the exact text if you care to weigh in. It's from a headline I just saw in r/france.

Note that the pronunciation alternates between two speeds-- normal and half-speed. Another nice little feature.