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…
Don’t miss out on one of the ATA’s most valuable resources—The Business Practices List
By David Friedman The ATA Business Practices Listserv (BP List) has without a doubt been the best thing about my ATA membership. The discussions on it range from advice on how to deal with contract clauses and how to vet clients to the differences between the bulk market and the premium market. It’s a place where all translators, regardless of experience,…
International Translation Day: A celebration of language and human rights
By Daniela Guanipa Today’s post is a celebration of all the language professionals who make a difference in our world – whether it is as medical or court interpreters, literary or technical translators, and every (in)imaginable field in between. We celebrate those linguists who came before us – just as Saint Jerome, whose feast we also celebrate today and who…
From ATA’s Mentoring Committee: How to Be a Happy and Prosperous Translator or Interpreter
By Eric Chiang ATA’s Mentoring Program has had two lives so far. Its first life began as the brainchild of then ATA Board member Courtney Searls-Ridge. Courtney followed her dream to build a mentoring program for ATA members: she organized, recruited, and cajoled to get the program off the ground in 2001. The program’s second life began in 2012 when…
University of Maryland, College Park: A Day in the Life
By Sarah Caudill Though I live in Silver Spring, Maryland, just a short bus ride from the UMD College Park campus, I was teaching English in a small French town called l’Isle d’Abeau when I first heard about the brand new Interpreting and Translation program at UMD. I had interpreted and translated on an informal basis for friends and family, of…
After the Conference is Before the Conference: Tips for ATA Conference Networking Success
Attending the largest annual translation conference in the USA can be a little daunting if you do not know any attendees beforehand. Luckily, my first ever ATA conference coincided with the newly established Newbies and Buddies program initiated by Helen Eby and Jamie Hartz. Here are some tips I picked up and suggestions to help you navigate your first conference.…
Ten Evenings Per Year
By Caitilin Walsh It doesn’t seem like a huge time investment, but they are some of the most demanding hours for me professionally. During those ten classes (five Wednesdays during the spring and fall quarters), I not only have to provide valuable theoretical and practical information to 18 energetic and motivated students, but my entire knowledge and 25+ years’ professional experience…
A Day in the Life: Bellevue College
This week we continue with our “A Day in the Life” series featuring an article written in collaboration by two current students from the Bellevue College Translation and Interpretation Certificate Program. We find it very interesting to hear the unique perspectives of students from completely different backgrounds who share a common goal: Applying their language skills to work through a…
ATA Business Smarts – The Midsummer Slump
Reblogged from ATA Business Practices Dear Business Smarts: During the past two weeks, very little work has come in. My regular clients all seem to have gone on a collective beach vacation. Even though I usually have a steady amount of work, I have had to search the online marketplaces for assignments, without much success. I feel like a fraud…
Happy Birthday to The Savvy Newcomer!
This Friday, August 15, marks the first anniversary of The Savvy Newcomer blog – still very young, but, boy has its presence been felt! Now that you have come to know The Savvy Newcomer, we thought it would be nice to hear the experience of all involved in this project, because, in a way, we were all newcomers (again), and…
Newbies and Buddies Survey: The Results Are In
By Helen Eby & Jamie Hartz Last year’s American Translators Association annual conference in San Antonio was the first to host two new sessions called “Buddies Welcome Newbies”. The Buddies and Newbies sessions were the brainchild of a few volunteers and some very eager supporters, and the events made such a successful debut last year that they will be taking place…