1．6 Six Major Trends of Translation翻译工作的六大趋势
Translation is a complex work，which no longer is a kind of one that anyone can do easily．It changes in many aspects with the development of science and technology．We now excerpt some paragraphs from Verbal Forest of Translation(《汉英双向翻译学语林》)by Sun Yingchun(孙迎春)．
Since the 1980s the work of translation in all corners of the world has been undergoing changes in several aspects，of which the following are included in the most conspicuous trends—The work of translation has become
1)Specialized: Having received the regular kind of training recognized by society or one＇s own profession and obtained a qualified seniority，the employees will behave according to the regulations and spirit stipulated by their profession．Translation is no longer a kind of work that anyone can casually do who knows some foreign language and depends simply upon a dictionary．
2)Academic: Translation theory and translation teaching，carried out by employing rational，positive methods，have gradually become an academic object of research．The work of translation and of training interpreters no longer simply depends upon genius，intuition，personal experience and traditions，since translators and translation educators have all commanded ways of academic research，by which professional problems that crop up will be solved．
3)Service: The work of translation has once again been restored to a status in which the customer becomes the center; the users(government，private companies and readers ignorant of foreign languages)are helped to overcome their language barrier so as to serve their purpose of obtaining data and information or any other purpose．Translation thus gradually leaves its ivory tower and enters the marketplace．
4)Multipurpose: As regards the readers in the past who used the literary or religious translations，they were relatively uniform in purpose and pure in background and fairly identical in attitude(they all aimed to appreciate，worship，seek after enlightenment，etc．)．The users and customers of translations today and future are much more complicated．Advertisements，international conventions，legal instances，scientific and technical essays，dispatches and speeches are quite different from one another in “use”and essence，so the specific ways adopted in translation need much adjustment．
5)Practical: Translation is no longer for“translation＇s sake” ，i．e．the purpose is not necessarily to produce another discourse equivalent to the original，but to reach the predetermined effect(usually the effect wanted by the customer，or what the translator judges to be the best effect to be received by the user)．The translator has to be clear about the target of every job so as to choose the most appropriate ways in fulfilling his task．
6)Scientific and technological: With the development of communication science and technology and artificial intelligence，translation combines more and more with advanced scientific and technological products，e．g．such equipments as discourse treatment，document retrieval from the data bank，electronic dictionary and desk publication have already been in common use for a long time in all kinds of translations in European and American societies，thus greatly heightening productivity，reliability，uniformity and printing quality．The times in which the translator consults his own dictionary and rock his own pen will soon become history，and the translators illiterate in computer will feel it difficult to find a place to live in．
Just as many other occupations，translation is stepping into automation．All kinds of simple，repetitious translations(these constitute a fairly large part of documents awaiting translation in the world)can be handled to the machine for treatment and the translator＇s task is to supervise and revise．In the near future many translators＇ routine work will become program design，sorting out words，pre-editing，translation management，etc．，with the man-machine cooperation becoming even closer．(周兆祥: 1998，《译学大词典》，转引自《汉英双向翻译学语林》，山东大学出版社，2001)