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.

Writing Your Public Profile

By The Savvy Linguist | July 28, 2026

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…

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…

Tips for Newcomers to the Translation and Interpreting Professions

By The Savvy Linguist | April 19, 2016

By Corinne McKay Reblogged from the ATA Chronicle (September 2013) with permission from the author If you asked 100 translators or interpreters to describe their first days in the industry, you would probably get 100 different answers—or at least some very entertaining stories. If you want to become an accountant or an attorney, there is a clear path ahead of you.…

Book Review: Diversification in the Language Industry

By The Savvy Linguist | April 12, 2016

By Catherine Christaki From time to time, in the translation industry (I’m guessing in many other industries as well), there are trending topics and buzzwords that become hot topics for a period of time. A few years ago, the buzzword that all linguists were talking about was diversification: what it is, do we need it, who it’s suitable for, and…

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