The Savvy Linguist serves a worldwide community of translators and interpreters who are looking for practical solutions to everyday problems, ideas for growing their business, and support as they achieve their career goals. With high-quality, peer-reviewed content, you will find the answers to the questions you face as an innovative language professional.
ATA’s 67th Annual Conference takes place October 28-31, 2026, at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco, and those four days will fly by. The attendees who get the most out of the conference are rarely the ones with the best luck; they’re the ones who did a little homework before boarding the plane. Here are nine things you can do ahead of time so you arrive ready to learn, connect, and enjoy yourself. 1. Order paper business cards now Yes, still. Paper cards remain the fastest way to close a conversation gracefully in a noisy hallway. Order them early enough so…
If you continuously struggle to stay organized and tend to work long hours to compensate for daily distractions, learning about productivity can mean wading through a body of presumptions. The advice of self-help materials–repeated in a myriad of online resources–can be difficult to follow, as there are relatively few productivity resources that openly acknowledge the impact of physical and mental…
This post was originally published on Integrated MarCom Translations blog. It is reposted with permission. No doubt you’ve heard it before: If you’re trying to increase your exposure, grow your network, and win more clients, you’ve got to work the social media scene. You may even have created your own Twitter account, grouped your Facebook contacts into relevant audiences for…
The article “Defining Translation Quality” (Koby, Fields, Hague, Lommel, and Melby) is the third article in a series of articles. This particular article starts by referencing the first two articles. It mentions that the first article talked about the scope (how broadly one defines translation) and specifications (how explicitly requirements must be stated) concerning definitions of translation and that the…
In the last post, we looked at the financial issues underpinning a need for COVID-related medical leave. This week, we turn to organizational issues. Since I first drafted this article, some of those issues have changed, both in the United States and around the world. Response to the highly contagious Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus differs from what we’ve…
The Spoken Language Interpreter Job Description, authored by Norma Andrada, Heidi Cazes, Helen Eby, Julia Poger, and Rafael Treviño, might be called a job description, but I swear it’s one of the simplest and most straightforward ways to answer client and employer questions about what interpreters do. The variety of the authors’ backgrounds and locations definitely enrich this solid and…
This post was originally published on Slate. It is reposted with permission. Ben Yagoda blogs about British words and phrases that have entered the American lexicon at www.notoneoffbritishisms.com. This summer, journalist Matthew Engel took to the BBC website to bemoan the corrupting influence of U.S. words on British English. Readers were invited to weigh in with their picks for the…
The idea for this post was born on my most stressful day in recent memory: the day I took three of my children to the doctor for COVID-19 tests. If even one tested positive, all three would need to skip school and spend up to two weeks at home with me. Along with my fears for my children’s health, my…
Imagine if you could freeze your rent payment forever. Now imagine that it could disappear by the time you retire. That financial advantage is a major reason why people take the plunge to become homeowners. Being a homeowner means that your “rent” will never increase unless you authorize it. Sure, taxes will increase, but never as much as rent tends…
Here at The Savvy Newcomer we understand that it can be intimidating to talk about money. It’s often a sticky subject, but we feel it’s the first order of business for small business owners. One major component of succeeding as a freelance translator or interpreter is managing your finances well. If you don’t master your money, your translation career won’t…
This post was originally published on Madalena Sánchez Zampaulo’s blog. It is reposted with permission. More and more translators are seeing the need to diversify their freelance businesses these days. Entrepreneur defines diversification as “a risk-reduction strategy that involves adding product, services, location, customers and markets to your company’s portfolio.” For many translators, the idea of diversifying their business may…