A Glimmer of Light?

A new doctor bill arrived this week. $1,089. I added it to the stack. It was for less than half an hour of "service" to get a prescription for antibiotics that I may not have even needed. No blood work or x-rays or scans of any kind. The U.S. healthcare system at it finest. May the Lord reward that doctor according to his works.

There might be a glimmer of light on the doctor bill front. I may be able to do transcription work online. It would be listening to audio files and typing out transcripts. At least part of it appears to be medical in nature such as psychiatry sessions. Irony: taking money from "doctors" to pay other doctors. I would have to sign a confidentiality agreement to see specifics.

In order to be able to do it, I'd need to meet multiple qualifications, which means taking tests. It's freelance work and pays per file/job. The pay rate varies with each job. Depending on how long it would take, the pay looks good, but it really comes down to how long it would take me to listen and type. I'd have the flexibility to do as many or as few jobs as I have time for. From what I can see, I'm estimating I could make a few hundred dollars a week working in the evenings and on weekends. The problem is that wouldn't leave much time for anything else.

While looking at that, I ran across some freelance translation work that pays around $30 an hour with the possibility of being hired full time later. My French skills have been improving, but they're probably not up to that level. I'm sure I could do some of it(Google Translate is a friend of mine for problem expressions.), but I don't have the certificate(s) to prove it. Fortunately, less than an hour away is a place to take the exam for that. The one I would want to take is the B2, and I'm not sure that's what the translation companies want. I need to look into it more deeply. They may have their own tests. The level above that is C1, which is full fluency. There's a chart here two or three pages down that explains it. B2 is high intermediate just below full fluency.

I'm somewhere in the B1 area, although I have gaps such as the words for comb and stapler and the like. I would likely need to spend several months or more studying for the B2 test, which would be good to have even if the translation companies want C1. The books I've been reading are C1 or higher such as this one I picked up for free and have been reading this week. On a practical level, I'm already doing C1 translation with books to be able to read them. I could probably do C1 French to English with help from Google. English to C1 French? No way.

 I'll let you know what happens on the transcription front. It looks like a way to pay off medical bills, but I have reservations.

Have a great weekend.