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.

How to Prepare for a Professional Conference

By The Savvy Linguist | October 6, 2026

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…

Nine Questions from Language Majors on Their Next Steps to Becoming a Translator or Interpreter

By The Savvy Linguist | October 4, 2022

If you are a language major considering your next steps, you’ve come to the right place! The translation and interpreting field is growing rapidly, and ATA is the largest association of its kind in the world. Whether you’re looking to become a successful solopreneur, interpret for the president of the United States, or work at a medical clinic in your…

3 Ways to Use Testimonials When You Have NDAs

By The Savvy Linguist | September 21, 2022

This post is a reblog, originally published on Madalena Sánchez Zampaulo’s blog. It is reposted with permission from the author. Testimonials are a great way to enrich your online marketing. Customers often read product reviews and testimonials before they make an important purchase. I heard someone say recently that other people’s words are 15 times more valuable than our own when…

Savvy Diversification Series – How I Became a Medical Writer

By The Savvy Linguist | September 20, 2022

The Savvy Newcomer team has been taking stock of the past year and finding that one key priority for many freelance translators and interpreters has been diversification. Offering multiple services in different sectors or to different clients can help steady us when storms come. Diversification can help us hedge against hard times. With this in mind, we’ve invited a series…

Avoiding Your Biggest Résumé Mistake – How to Target Your Résumé

By The Savvy Linguist | September 13, 2022

We send résumés out all the time, in response to direct requests and in hopes of getting work. Résumés (or “CVs” for European clients) can be a vexing topic – but they don’t have to be. The Basics Let’s start with what you should include: Your name Your language combination Your contact details Your skills Your relevant experience The technology…

Courting the Sandman

By The Savvy Linguist | August 31, 2022

MIRELLA lay still in her bed, though she felt every muscle twitching. She had tried tossing but could not get comfortable. Lying on her back, she scooted up to rest her head on the pillow. She had read somewhere that in colonial times, they used to sleep almost sitting up. The standby light on the computer stared at her accusingly.…

Protect Your Career by Protecting Your Eyes

By The Savvy Linguist | August 10, 2022

How much time do you spend each day looking at some type of screen? Do you work on a computer, use a tablet to look up terms while interpreting, or spend long amounts of time staring at your phone? Have you ever noticed a headache coming on while you work, or have your eyes started to feel dry and irritated?…

Savvy Diversification Series – How I Became a Mobile App Localizer

By The Savvy Linguist | July 26, 2022

The Savvy Newcomer team has been taking stock of the past year and finding that one key priority for many freelance translators and interpreters has been diversification. Offering multiple services in different sectors or to different clients can help steady us when storms come. Diversification can help us hedge against hard times. With this in mind, we’ve invited a series…

“I’ve Always Done It That Way!” – Breaking Out of Old Habits

By The Savvy Linguist | July 20, 2022

This post is a reblog, originally published in the Tool Box Journal Newsletter, Issue 22-6-338 on June 15, 2022. It is reposted with permission from the author. Our brains are wired to resort to tried-and-true recipes in times of uncertainty, but old approaches are not always the most productive choice. The work of Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman has helped us understand…

Savvy Diversification Series – Copyediting 101: What It Is, What It’s Not, and Who Needs It

By The Savvy Linguist | July 12, 2022

The Savvy Newcomer team has been taking stock of the past year and finding that one key priority for many freelance translators and interpreters has been diversification. Offering multiple services in different sectors or to different clients can help steady us when storms come. Diversification can help us hedge against hard times. With this in mind, we’ve invited a series…

The Devil is in the Details: Why You Need to Start Using a Corpus to Localize and Translate Better

By The Savvy Linguist | June 28, 2022

This post was originally published on Ana Lis Salotti Translations. It is reposted with permission. Do you know what a CORPUS is? Have you ever used a corpus before in your translation career? Have you ever felt stuck with a simple phrase in your source language and can’t find an equivalent that runs as smoothly as your original? If you…

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ATA66 Conference Preview: Business Practices Education at ATA66

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