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As language professionals, we have a duty to keep up with training and education in our languages and specializations; with technology, legislation, and other developments important to our field; and with other people, both colleagues and clients. Attending a professional conference is a great way to manage all of these obligations. But conferences, by their very nature, can be big, overwhelming, and difficult to navigate. Simply showing up and hoping for the best is a recipe for exhaustion, failure, and wasting all the money we invested to be there. To really make the most of the conference experience, it helps…
Book review: Guide to Becoming a Successful Freelance Translator
The translation and interpreting industries have been blessed with a plethora of new books in the last few years. The book I’m going to talk to you about is mostly for new translators and interpreters, curious to explore and eager to learn more about their communities. Let’s see the basics of the book first. Title The Ultimate Guide to Becoming…
Linguist in the Spotlight: An Interview with David Rumsey
Following our most recent “Linguist in the Spotlight” interview (with current ATA President Corinne McKay), we could not be happier to have had the opportunity to speak to immediate past president of ATA, David Rumsey. A Swedish-, Danish-, and Norwegian-to-English translator for nearly 30 years, David has a wealth of knowledge about the profession (which, by the way, he fell…
Dear Savvy: Will I Go Broke as a Literary Translator?
If you read the first post in our new “Dear Savvy” series, on breaking into culinary translation, you might remember that our inbox has been graced by a number of thoughtful reader questions lately. In this new column, we provide answers to your questions by asking those who know best. In this case, we recruited literary translator Lisa Carter to…
Certification Exam Changes
Reblogged from The ATA Chronicle, with permission There are major changes ahead for ATA’s certification exam in 2017. Eligibility Requirements Education and experience requirements needed to take the exam will be discontinued in January 2017. Why? Because they failed to predict the chances of an individual passing the exam. And that was the whole point—to ensure that exam candidates were…
9 Useful Questions by New Professional Translators
Qualifying is a massive part of becoming a professional translator. But once you’ve finished your training, how do you get started? This article answers nine of the most popular questions by budding professional translators when they get to the end of my Spanish-to-English translation course.
Linguist in the Spotlight: An Interview with Corinne McKay
This fourth installment of our “Linguist in the Spotlight” interview series features Corinne McKay, French-to-English translator and current president of the American Translators Association (ATA). If Corinne’s name is familiar, it may be thanks not only to her visible role in the ATA, but to the fact that she is a regular contributor to The Savvy Newcomer and also the…
Dear Savvy: I Want to Work in Culinary Translation
Recently, our inbox has seen a number of thoughtful questions from readers. In lieu of shipping off worthy advice to lone recipients, we decided these exchanges could benefit a broader audience. Without further ado, we are pleased to inaugurate our new question-and-answer series à la “Dear Abby,” titled “Dear Savvy” (get it?). Our first reader question is on how to…
Transitioning from Student to Freelance Translator
Reblogged from the SDL Trados blog, incl. the image, with permission from the author In November this year at ATA’s 57th Annual Conference in San Francisco, Meghan McCallum and Sarah Puchner, both French to English translators, co-presented a session on “Transitioning from Student to Translator: Strategies for Success.” After the conference we reached out to Meghan to discuss this topic…
Year-one Chronicle: My First Twelve Months as a Professional Translator
A few days before Christmas I got a thick, imposing envelope in the mail from the Washington State Department of Revenue. “ACTION REQUIRED: Business Tax Return due January 31” it shouted in bold, red font across the front. Yikes! What have I gotten myself into? Inauspicious beginnings Two years ago, I didn’t even know that document translation was a real…
ATA’s First Virtual Conference Has Arrived
Did you miss out on ATA’s 58th Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.? Or maybe you attended but weren’t able to make it to as many sessions you would have liked. Don’t fear! The ATA Virtual Conference is here. What is the Virtual Conference? The Virtual Conference is a collection of 49 sessions given at ATA58 in Washington, D.C. There are…