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.
In professional associations, you can often publish a public profile. Clients use this profile to decide who to work with. It should be brief, but it has to tell your story. However, sometimes our public profile is not visible. Go to your profile settings on the platform your association uses and verify that your profile is visible. You can generally select items from your profile to share publicly, such as your phone, address, email, and social media profiles. Be intentional about what you share. This information can be seen by the public. That means both your clients and other people…
Networking 101 for Freelancers
Every freelance professional knows the drill. You enter a door to some event space and there’s a desk with name tags on it. “Hi! My name is ________.” You take a black marker and write your name on the small blank canvas. You peel off the nametag and stick it to your shirt. And yes, it will fall off several…
International Translation Day 2019 – A Day in the Life of a Translator or Interpreter
Have you heard? ATA is encouraging translators and interpreters to celebrate International Translation Day (ITD) in a BIG way this year! A United Nations resolution passed in 2017 recognizes ITD as the day to pay tribute to the work of language professionals, and to celebrate this huge step for our profession, ATA is celebrating big time on September 30, 2019.…
The Whys and Hows of Translation Style Guides. A Case Study.
This post was originally published on the Financial Translation Hub blog. It is reposted with permission from the author. Last week, a marketing manager of a global investment company called me. He was referred to me by a colleague. They are launching the company’s website in Italy and had it translated into Italian by a global translation company. However, they…
Uncovering New Opportunities: Genealogical Translation as a Specialty
Genealogy is in the news these days with the popularity of services like 23andMe—and that has implications for professional translators. At the most basic level, genealogy is the study of family history. Yet, it is a wide-ranging field that includes everything from the hobbyist trying to identify their fifth great-grandparents to the professional genealogist helping a probate court locate the…
El encargo de traducción: ¿qué preguntar antes de aceptar?
This post was originally published on the En la luna de Babel blog. It is reposted with permission from the author. Últimamente he trabajado con varios clientes nuevos (empresas, agencias y particulares) y buscando en la red cómo enfocaban este asunto otros compañeros, di con un listado de Tomedes, que reproduzco aquí con su permiso y amplio con algunos apuntes…
Get out the vote 2019
ATA members should vote! We get the leaders we vote for. ATA is fortunate to have an all-volunteer Board of Directors that dedicate their time and energy to directing and bettering our organization. These directors and other specific positions are elected at an annual meeting of voting members during the annual conference each year. In September, ATA always gives voters…
How to Set a Budget for Your Freelance Business
This post was originally published on the Thoughts On Translation blog. It is reposted with permission from the author. Setting a budget for your freelance business is important, because: -Many freelancers have no idea how much they need to earn in order to achieve the same level of financial security as someone with a traditional job. -As a freelancer, you…
Stumbling on the Vocabulary of National Life (Part Two)
by Joseph P. Mazza This post is part two of a two-part series by Joe Mazza. Read last week’s post here (you won’t regret it): Stumbling on the Vocabulary of National Life (Part One). Having survived the surly eviction from a Latino grocery store, I decided long ago to pursue the vocabulary of national life on less dangerous turf—namely around…
The Benefits of Mentoring
Photo Credit: Pexels This post was originally published on the Ben Translates blog. It is reposted with permission from the author. This week, I was informed that I have been selected as one of 30 mentees for the 2017-2018 class of the American Translators Association mentoring program. I am delighted to have been chosen for this opportunity and look forward to…
Stumbling on the Vocabulary of National Life (Part One)
by Joseph P. Mazza I envy those who take up foreign languages spoken in a single country. Sure, there may be regional varieties within that country and émigré communities too. Yet these happy colleagues have the institutions and lifeways of only one country to tackle. Japanese linguists will be the first to dispute how easy this really is! Having been…