A short history of translation and translators

In the 21st century

• In the 21st century
• Like their ancestors, contemporary translators contribute to the enrichment of languages. When a target language lacks terms that are present in a source language, they borrow those terms, thereby enriching the target language.
• Translation Studies have become an academic inter-discipline that includes various fields of study (comparative literature, history, linguistics, philology, philosophy, semiotics, terminology, computational linguistics). Students also choose a speciality (legal, economic, technical, scientific or literary translation) in order to be trained accordingly.
• The internet has fostered a worldwide market for translation and localisation services, and for translation software. It has also brought many issues, with precarious employment and lower rates for professional translators, and the rise of unpaid volunteer translation including crowdsourced translation. Bilingual people need more skills than two languages to become good translators. To be a translator is a profession, and implies a thorough knowledge of the subject matter.