The Savvy Newcomer aims to serve newcomers to the translation and interpreting professions by publishing high-quality, peer-reviewed content on a weekly basis. We strive to provide you with the answers to the many questions you face as a new or aspiring translator or interpreter.
Many language professionals start out doing their work “on the side” of whatever else they are doing in life. When people find out you are bilingual, you may be asked to do some volunteer interpreting to help out a friend, family member, or someone in need, or you may agree or be expected to do the occasional translation—and maybe even get paid for it. Volunteering and doing small side jobs are great ways to gain experience and improve your skills as a translator or interpreter. But in order to be a professional—whether you plan on doing this work part-time or…
Read MorePresentation Proposal Resources for #ATA60 in Palm Springs
ATA speakers bring a broad variety of topics and perspectives to the conference. This is what makes it interesting! When you present as a team, you can discuss the topic in depth with your colleagues for months and give participants a broader perspective. Proposals are currently being accepted for the 60th ATA Annual Conference in Palm Springs and the submission…
Read MoreATA59 Conference Session Review: “Textspeak in the Courtroom,” Parts I and II
It can be a bit intimidating to attend a “Part I” session at conferences, knowing there is a lot of information to be absorbed. That said, “Textspeak in the Courtroom” was a two-part lecture I did not want to miss! As a Spanish translator and transcriber, I come in contact with textspeak and slang on a regular basis—not in the…
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Have you ever wondered what the ATA Mentoring Program entails, who joins, and what they get out of the experience? With the application deadline for this year’s program approaching, I’d like to share my experience in the hopes that it may help shed some light on the questions that people interested in the program might have. Why I joined the…
Read MoreEscaping Lockdown
Reblogged from SJB Translations’ blog, with permission (incl. the image) How (and how not) to cope with big projects A couple of weeks ago I won my freedom, or at least that’s what it felt like. I finally completed a series of big translation and revision projects that had kept me in what amounted to professional lockdown for more that two…
Read MoreEU recruiting translators and proofreaders on fixed-term contracts
A few weeks ago, the European Union opened a process to recruit translators and proofreaders on fixed-term contracts to work within the EU institutions, primarily at its offices in Brussels and Luxembourg. Translators must be able to translate from two different official EU languages into one other EU language; under the current rules, the first of these two source languages must…
Read MoreAmerican Medical Writers Association (AMWA) Conference 2018 Review
What does a medical translator and interpreter have to learn from medical writers? Especially if you write in Spanish, and the conference is for people who write in English. I went to the AMWA conference curious, and came back changed, having learned so much that I am going back for sure. Oh, and it was so much fun! As a…
Read MoreThe Mentor’s Bounty: How Mentoring Enriches both Mentor and Mentee
During the 59th ATA Conference in New Orleans, a colleague asked me, “What was the motivation that drove a group of translators to create an audiovisual division in the ATA?” I sat for a minute, pondering. “Many different factors motivated each of us,” I said. He then asked, “Well, what do you think was the single most important thing?” I…
Read MoreI asked translators and interpreters what their biggest website challenge was; what I learned is that it’s not website-related at all
In the fall of 2018 I ran a survey to see what are the biggest website-related challenges of freelance translators and interpreters. In addition to four closed questions, there was one open-ended question. Responses to that question show that the biggest challenge is not copy, design, or even SEO. It’s strategy. Here are the responses and my answers to them.…
Read MoreTranslation Slams: Can You Benefit without Working in the Source Language?
Reflections on the ATA59 Spanish-to-English Translation Slam Inspired by poetry slams, translation slams are a forum for comparing multiple translations of the same source text. The participants are usually a moderator and at least two translators, or “slammers.” The translations are done in advance of the event, so that each of the translators, the moderator, and the audience can jointly…
Read MoreWhy Provide a Forensic Transcription Translation?
Reblogged from the ATA Interpreters Division blog, with permission (incl. the image) Recently, I was asked if I could be an expert witness regarding whether the interpreting provided in an interview that was recorded on video was accurate. I would go to the attorney’s office, watch the video and be deposed regarding the accuracy of the interpreting in this video,…
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