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…
Business Smarts: Fluctuating Workloads
One of the most daunting questions for freelancers – and more so for freelancers-to-be! – is how to handle workload fluctuations. In this great post taken from the ATA website’s Business Practices we find some suggestions to deal with the infamous “dry patch”, coaching on how to use the most feared word for freelancers (“no”), and how to find balance in our work. Fluctuating…
An Invitation: A Day in the Life
As you may have noticed, the ATA Savvy Newcomer blog will be running a series in the coming months on the many options for education in translation and interpreting that exist in the U.S. We have had posts by NYU and Kent State students, and we are in the process of reaching out to other institutions that have certificate and/or…
The Hidden Part of the Job
By Giovanna Lester In my marketing workshops I discuss a subject I call “Anatomy of a Project.” The focus is on the immediate interaction following the acceptance, performance, delivery, and post-delivery of a project from the standpoint of marketing. However, there is another phase of what I call the “Greater Project” that I do not discuss in depth in those…
Kent State University: A Day in the Life
The Program Kent State University’s Department of Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies is home to an active and vibrant translation department boasting bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD programs in translation and translation studies. Five languages are currently offered in the master’s program (French, German, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish), and one more will be added in Fall 2014 (Arabic). The master’s…
Nice Interpreter!
By Judy and Dagmar Jenner Reblogged from Translation Times with permission from the authors Today’s post is about the importance of being, well, nice. It’s essential to be a great interpreter — that goes without saying — but there’s also much to be said about the importance of soft skills. In the interpreting world, these skills are especially relevant in…
Bilingualism – Part III
In this third and final part of the series about Bilingualism, Eta Trabing discusses what it really means to be a “professional”, some of the rewards of the language-related professions, and even gives us suggestions of less-known paths for bilingual individuals. By M. Eta Trabing, Berkana Language LLC – www.eberkana.us Professionalism Means… Being totally accountable for your work. You are solely responsible…
ATA Divisions: Providing Homes for all Translators
By Lucy Gunderson, CT Administrator of the Slavic Languages Division Getting involved in an organization like the American Translators Association can be an intimidating step to take. I know—I went through this once myself. Trying to find a way to stand out among the other 10,500+ members is at best a daunting task. Fortunately, though, the ATA offers the perfect…
Bilingualism – Part II
Today we continue with Part II of this fascinating journey through bilingualism. In this issue, our guest author, Eta Trabing, provides some tips to put that second language to good use, whether it is polishing your skills to be more effective in your job, or becoming a translator or interpreter. By M. Eta Trabing, Berkana Language LLC – www.eberkana.us Are you…
To the Shy Networker
By Evelyn Yang Garland There I was, at a well-attended networking event… hiding in the restroom! I hated to schmooze with a room full of strangers. I forced myself to attend that event for one reason only—I was looking for a job, and the one piece of advice that I kept getting was that I needed to network. That is…
Bilingualism – Part I
Today we will begin with Part I of a series of three articles about Bilingualism. Our guest author, Ms. M. Eta Trabing, walks us through a truly fascinating description of what being bilingual means, and how to apply this knowledge in the working world. She offers help with the most daunting question we all language people face at some point:…