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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…
The Seven Virtues of the New Translation Era
Building on the Rubble of the Shattered “Poverty Cult” This article was first published in 1997 on the NCTA (Northern California Translators Association) website in the earliest days of the web. It’s a window into the translation industry as it existed more than 20 years ago, but the advice is more important than ever in today’s supercharged technology and business…
Chapter Conferences: A Great Place to Start
For me, fall means conference season. There’s the American Translators Association (ATA) conference in late October or early November, but even before that is the conference organized by my local ATA chapter, the Midwest Association of Translators and Interpreters (MATI). I started attending MATI’s annual conferences when I was a graduate student, and I’ve been a regular attendee ever since.…
Online Training Resources for Translators
Reblogged from The ATA Chronicle, with permission As chair of ATA’s Translation and Interpreting Resources Committee, my goal is to gather information on resources of all kinds, including those related to professional development. The following discusses short-duration online training that does not lead to a certificate or university credit. Webinars Webinars are online seminars—a sort of mini-class on a specific…
6 Reasons Why New Translators Should Specialize
When you’re starting out in the translation industry, you hear a lot about specialization. People tell you to find your niche and become a specialist, not a generalist. Why? This article will give you six reasons why new translators should consider developing their specialist fields. Becoming a specialist isn’t an overnight process. There’s nothing wrong with being more of a…
Cognitive strategies for the resolution of translation problems
Reblogged from the EU’s Terminology Coordination Unit blog, with permission from the author (incl. the images) The objective of the papers is to draw a panorama of the study of cognitive strategies for the resolution of translation problems, as well as to draw the perspectives of the research. We consider that translation strategies can be of internal support (cognitive type) and…
Linguist in the Spotlight: An Interview with Izumi Suzuki
The five interviewees featured so far in our Linguist in the Spotlight series possess a collective 100-plus years of experience. This week’s interviewee boasts nearly half that on her own. Izumi Suzuki, who has worked an impressive 40 years as a translator and interpreter, is an ATA-certified translator in Japanese<>English (both directions!), as well as a certified court interpreter. Of…
Buddies Welcome Newbies 2018
This year Buddies Welcome Newbies will be celebrating its sixth year of welcoming newcomers to the American Translators Association annual conference! After its debut in San Antonio in 2013, Buddies Welcome Newbies has grown to become a well-known event right before the Welcome Celebration of the ATA conference. Designed as an icebreaker for those attending the conference for the first…
Book Review: Revising and Editing for Translators
Reblogged from Amper Translation Service blog, with permission, incl. the image Recently I came across a reference to a book on editing that caught my attention, partly because I hadn’t encountered many comprehensive guides on editing at that point and partly because this one was specifically aimed at translators. It turned out that the work had been around since 2001…
International Translation Day 2018 – Go out, tell the world, be bold!
Have you heard? ATA is encouraging translators and interpreters to celebrate International Translation Day (ITD) in a BIG way this year! A new United Nations resolution passed in 2017 celebrates the work of translators and interpreters, and to celebrate this huge step in gaining recognition for our profession, ATA is hosting a social media blitz on September 28, 2018. We…
Get out the vote 2018
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…