Thinking about translation in our everyday life I realise how big it's presence is - from morning till evening, at home, at work and in the street we come across translation in this or that way. The packaging of various food, cosmetic or household products, medicine and appliances instructions, electronics manuals, clothes labels, advertising, films and TV shows, internet pages, magazine articles, books, restaurant menus and museum brochures - this list can be enormous. Actually, living in Spain, being married to an Englishman (who speaks English only) and having Russian as my native language, I can definitely say that all my life is translation. Just going out and having a couple of words with a neighbour or a person in the shop already requires translation for me.

If I lived in Russia, my native country, this amount of translation of course would be smaller in my own mind, but would be at the same level or bigger in the outside world. Most of the modern goods, materials, technologies, as well as their advertising, are imported in Russia, so everything that goes with it needs to be translated. Besides, having different alphabet makes the foreign words stand out. I think this is also true for many countries outside Europe or US, who are the main exporters of not just goods and technologies, but also culture and their way of life. 

Apart from that, tourism in my opinion is a very big field for translation - guides and advertising materials, announcements in the metro, buses, museums or shopping centres, road signs in different languages - all this brings more translation into life of main tourist centres compared to quiet towns "in the middle of nowhere". 

Nowadays with wide development of international business and trade, growth of multinational corporations, increase in tourism and travelling, that have become very accessible and easy for more and more people, translation spreads quickly around the globe increasing its volumes. 

As for the visibility of translation, now as well as in older times, in my mind it depends very much on the intervention that it makes to the  local culture and changes that it brings to life. For example, an American advertising would be much more noticeable in an Asian or Arab country than in the neighbouring Canada or Mexico. In a small village that has had it's way of life for ages any change or novelty coming from abroad would be much more visible than in a big tourist or business city.

All the above said, I think I will join many others in saying that the amount of materials that need translation grows rapidly every day, and the time given for it decreases.