ATA Savvy Linguist

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.

From Classroom to First ATA Conference: A New Path

By The Savvy Linguist | September 22, 2026

A New Chapter Begins After completing the Spanish-English Translation Certificate Program at the University of Massachusetts Boston, I felt proud of my progress but uncertain about my next step. I worked as an in-house medical interpreter and translator at a Harvard-affiliated teaching hospital in Boston for nine years. My work taught me to listen closely, think quickly, and communicate with compassion. However, I wanted to build on that experience through medical translation. Soon after graduation, I was selected as one of five recipients of the American Foundation for Translation and Interpretation’s (AFTI) First-Time ATA Conference Attendee Scholarship. The award allowed…

Networking at a Conference: Chris Durban on and off stage

By The Savvy Linguist | June 28, 2016

By Cynthia Eby & Bianca Dasso This April, I attended the VI Congreso Latinoamericano de Traducción e Interpretación: El traductor después del mañana (6th Latin American Translation and Interpreting Congress: Translator after tomorrow) in Buenos Aires. I was there watching and learning as I often have this year in my job as an administrative assistant for my mom, Helen Eby,…

6-Step Strategy to Translators Visibility

By The Savvy Linguist | June 21, 2016

By Carlos Djomo (@carlosdjomo) Reblogged from the Adventures in Technical Translation blog with permission from the author (incl. the image) Many budding translators usually struggle to get into the professional world. They always admit that the transition from school to the field is far from being easy, although they believe they may have mastered the art of translation. Maybe it is…

Book Review: The Money Book

By The Savvy Linguist | June 14, 2016

By Jamie Hartz The Money Book by Joseph D’Agnese and Denise Kiernan had been on my reading list since I received it as a gift last year, and I’m excited to share with you what I learned—and what I will do differently—as a result of reading it. The book is not geared specifically towards freelance linguists or translators (I am…

Translation and localization in a nutshell

By The Savvy Linguist | June 7, 2016

By Marta Chereshnovska (@Martav88) Reblogged from the Translation and l10n for dummies blog with permission from the author (incl. the image) A lot of said about translation and localization but let me put in my two cents and try to explain the most common terms in simple words. So first goes the most general one – translation. Translation is a process of conveying…

How to Have a Super First Year in the ATA: Small Resources that Add Up to Big Benefits

By The Savvy Linguist | May 31, 2016

Welcome to the third article in the series How to Have a Super First Year in the ATA. This time, I’ll be talking about all the small resources offered by the ATA that add up to big benefits towards the end of your first year. List Yourself in the ATA Directory Make yourself findable! Direct clients and agencies alike use…

Living the Dream? How Freelance Translators Can Become Digital Nomads

By The Savvy Linguist | May 24, 2016

Picture yourself newly-arrived on some tropical beach somewhere, or perhaps in a café in the middle of an exciting, cosmopolitan city. Laptop open in front of you, you’re adding the finishing touches to your latest translation project. As you close the file and click ‘Send’, you set off to explore this latest destination – sparing a thought, of course, for…

Seven Super Skills: Progressing in Translation

By The Savvy Linguist | May 17, 2016

By Joseph Lambert (@jaltranslation) Reblogged from the JALTranslation blog with permission from the author (incl. the images) Today’s post sees us move from the power of translation to the process of translation and, more specifically, to a look at the demands of this process. There are a number of vital skills required to produce high quality translations and here I put…

Book review: The Business Guide for Translators

By The Savvy Linguist | May 10, 2016

By David Friedman It is widely recognized that there are several skills you need to be successful in translation. The fundamental skills include excellent source language comprehension, superb target language writing skills, and subject matter expertise. However, business skills are also essential, especially in today’s translation market where the majority of translators are self-employed freelancers. While reading, writing, and translation…

How to Have a Super First Year in the ATA: The School Outreach Program

By The Savvy Linguist | May 3, 2016

Welcome to the second article in the series How to Have a Super First Year in the ATA. This time, I’ll be talking about my winning experience in the School Outreach Contest. As a new ATA member in 2015, I received my first edition of The Chronicle and was intrigued by the article about Jenny Stillo, the winner of the…

Why Machine Translation Should Have a Role in Your Life. Really!

By The Savvy Linguist | May 3, 2016

By Spence Green (@LiltHQ) Reblogged from the The Language of Translation blog with permission from the author (incl. the image) Guest author Spence Green talks about a heated topic: Machine Translation, Translation Memories and everything in between. Spence Green is a co-founder of Lilt, a provider of interactive translation systems. He has a PhD in computer science from Stanford University and a…

Recent Posts

From Classroom to First ATA Conference: A New Path

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Unlock Your Potential: Join the ATA Mentoring Program

Embracing the Future: Why New Translators and Interpreters Should See AI as an Ally, Not a Threat

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ATA66 Conference Preview: Business Practices Education at ATA66

Independent Contracting from A to Z: Everything Translators & Interpreters Need to Know

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