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…
Whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned translator or interpreter, you’ve probably spent a lot of time thinking about marketing yourself and making meaningful connections to build a fulfilling career. Social media, LinkedIn, and professional websites have their merits, but there is another avenue that linguists are exploring: podcasting. If you’ve been inspired by the growing number of top-notch podcasts…
This post was originally published on That Translation Blog. It is reposted with permission. I admit it. I’m slightly addicted to TikTok. As a marketing and luxury goods translator, it’s actually a really useful business tool (that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it). I was recently working on a tourism translation for a French hotel, and in that there was…
If you’re interested in a career as a translator or interpreter, it can be hard to figure out how to break into the industry. Where are the jobs? What should you specialize in? How do you set rates? One way to answer these and many other questions is to start out as an entry-level project manager (PM) with a language…
This post was originally published on ORH Translations. It is reposted with permission. Upon completion of my undergraduate degree, I was faced with the difficult decision of what to do next. I was frightened, anxious and overwhelmed with the thought of stepping into the big, scary working world. I would say that I was quite naive when I finished my…
There is much to be learned from our colleagues, but it can be intimidating to strike up a conversation with the “pros.” For that reason, we at Savvy have done the work for you in our Linguist in the Spotlight interview series, where we pick the brains of experienced translators and interpreters and bring their stories right to your screen.…
This post is a reblog, originally published on Tip of the Tongue. It is republished with permission from the author. The question of when a price proposal is too high is quite complex. Last week, I submitted a bid for a specialized service to an experienced professional. In my proposal, I took into account my investments in terms of time…
This post was originally published on Polka Dot Translations. It is reposted with permission. Last Friday marked one year since I was in a serious bicycle accident. That evening, I left home to go for a Zumba class only to return nine days later, with a massive, painful wound on my belly and a piece of small intestine missing. Dangerous…
I may be wrong, but scam activities seem to be inversely proportional to the economic cycle. Whenever there is the threat of an economic downturn, there seems to be an uptick in scam activities. At least that’s what I have noticed in my own business and in my capacity as webmaster of the Northern California Translators Association (NCTA). Therefore, I…
This post was originally published on The Translation Guy. It is reposted with permission. Got a Client Who Didn’t Pay You and Now They Won’t Answer Your Emails? What Are Your Options? A few years ago, I was a freelance translator translating mainly from English and Spanish into Portuguese. I quite enjoyed the freedom of working from home (pyjamas) and…
This post is a reblog, originally published on Productivity Stacks. It is republished with permission from the author. Do you often feel like your business is running you instead of the other way around? Do you wonder why you constantly feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day? This is your chance to figure out where your time is…