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.
We have published the ATA Savvy Newcomer since 2013 and ATA Next Level since 2021. Each blog has made unique and helpful contributions to our members. Savvy Newcomer was founded to help translators avoid the “school of hard knocks” that many of us went through. It has been helpful to new and experienced translators alike as we published articles on a variety of topics. Over the years, the blog team found that newcomers to the profession, our intended audience, were not necessarily a large majority of our readers. We were reaching a worldwide community of translators and interpreters who were…
Beat the January Doldrums Starting Now
For many freelancers, some much-wanted/needed time off turns into an unwelcome amount of down time when work is slow in January.
A Translator’s Grown-Up Christmas List
Ah, the age-old question: what do you get the translator or interpreter who has everything? If your December is anything like mine, throughout the month your family will try to subtly (or not-so-subtly) ask you for gift ideas, and you’ll try to come up with a better response than “extra hours in the day” or “a nap”. This year, we…
Writing for the Web
By Helen Eby Last August, I went to New York City for the Editorial Freelancers Association Conference, and one of the topics was editing for the web. That topic is not only important to editors – it is also highly relevant to translators and many other professions. We write content every day, and we have to find ways to make…
A Newbie’s Experience at #ATA57
Attending conferences can be exciting and nerve-racking at the same time, but with the Newbies & Buddies program at the ATA annual conference, I felt at ease and enjoyed every moment to the fullest. Bonding with three smiling faces through the welcome reception—Farah Arjang, a veteran translator and translation service provider, and Yifan Zhan and Lilian Gao, two graduate students…
Nouveaux traducteurs : 10 conseils pour bien démarrer
By Gaëlle Gagné (@trematweet) Reblogged from Le Blog de Trëma with permission from the author (incl. the image) Il y a quelques semaines, j’ai répondu avec plaisir à l’invitation d’une de mes professeurs de l’ÉSIT qui m’avait conviée à un de ses cours afin que je partage mon expérience avec les étudiants de la promotion 2016. La plupart envisagent d’exercer…
ATA Conference Recap
By Jamie Hartz It’s been just over two weeks since the 57th Annual American Translators Association Conference ended, and we’re excited to report that it was, once again, a blast. This year’s highlights included Brainstorm Networking, an event where colleagues meet to discuss business practices-related scenarios in a quick but fun setting; the Job Fair, featuring a number of agencies…
5 lessons from SLAM! on promoting professionalism in the translation industry
How do you differentiate yourself and earn a living as a freelance translator or interpreter? Arm yourself with huge doses of entrepreneurship, pride and courage. Keep on reading to get more tips and be ready to rock! About SLAM! The Scandinavian Language Associations’ meeting (SLAM!) was held on the 24th of September in Malmö. The theme of the event was…
Always leave the door open for future opportunities
Learning to say no is widely covered in our profession. It is a skill many of us have to work on. It took me a long time to identify my limits and realize that yes can be a huge and attractive trap. There is another aspect of our profession that does not receive as much attention: learning to hear no…
Interview – Robyn Dean on Ethics: Metaphors or Values?
Reblogged from the ATA Interpreters Division blog with permission from the author (incl. the image) In preparation for the ATA conference, Marsel de Souza interviewed Robyn Dean, the Interpreters Division’s guest speaker at the ATA 57th Annual Conference in San Francisco. This interview focuses on the following sessions and much more: Returning to Ethics: A Meta-Ethical Analysis of Community Interpreters’ Codes and Standards of…
Revision: a nlboe and etessanitl srcviee
ATA Conference session T-10, Saturday 10:00-11:00, Garden B If you can read the intended title of this presentation, then you can understand that it is impossible to catch all our own mistakes. As translators, we become as close to the material as the author (some say closer). Our eyes begin to gloss over typos and errors as our brain becomes…