Perhaps you've heard that there are professional origami artists. Yes, there are a few: myself, Joseph Wu, Michael LaFosse, Paul Jackson, and Sipho Mabona for starters. (And lots of others: if I've left you out, my apologies—it's assuredly not a complete list. Feel free to add a comment, see end.) And you'd like to become one yourself, which is completely understandable because getting someone else to pay you to do something you love, like origami, is just about the best thing imaginable! So how do you get started?
可能你听说过一些职业折纸玩家。没错，确实有一些：须神，纸魔，维嘉，OB还有叹为观纸一伙人。（抱歉，我不能一一列举全部，如果遗漏了谁，（你tm来打我啊（雾））欢迎在楼中楼里提出。）如果你也想成为他们中的一员，这也是可以理解的，毕竟有个冤大头来为你喜欢做的事情（比如折纸）买单，这不是人人所梦寐以求的吗？那么，要怎么开始呢？

I'll answer that…but first, there's a whole bunch of caveats and fine print that needs to get laid out. The first one is: I can't tell you how to become me—or Joseph, Michael, Paul, or Sipho. There's already one of each of those. Each of today's professional origami artists is unique: we have our own artistic approaches, our own skill sets, and our own areas of specialization. There's certainly overlap in what we do (i.e., origami figures into it all), but we all have our niches. And if you become a professional artist, you'll have to find your niche.
我会告诉你怎么做的……但是！要先跟你说一大堆逆耳良言。第一0：绝对不意气用事…呸！我不能告诉你如何成为像须神，纸魔，伟嘉，OB这样的大婶（神）。事实上，每个职业折纸玩家都是独一无二的：他们有他们独有的艺术感染力，独有的折纸技巧，和他们擅长的领域。他们所做的当然会有重叠的地方（比如都是折纸……），但他们都有各自的卖点。如果你想成为一个职业折纸玩家，那你必须找到你自己的卖点。

Are you still with me after all those scary caveats? Well, great: now comes the information. I get asked a lot, "what should I study? And what are some resources?" And that's what I'll address next.
看完这些严苛的要求，你还要继续看下去吗？那好，现在进入正题。我经常被问到“我应该学习什么？哪里能找到资料？”我接下来会谈到。

But wait: one more caveat. What you study will depend on your niche. If you're focusing on engineering, you'll study different things than if you're focusing on graphic arts and advertising. Because the world is a rapidly changing place (and origami is a rapidly changing field), any specific advice is going to be of limited utility. The opportunities available to you will be different from the ones available to me, and so any advice that is only applicable to the circumstances I faced would likely be not very useful.
先等等，还有一点。你要学习的方向取决于你的卖点。如果你关注于工程，那里学习的东西必然和关注于平面艺术和广告。因为世界变化很快（折纸变化也很快），任何特定的建议都只会有有限的效力。你获得的机会与别人都不相同，所以任何建议可能并不适用与你。

(This is, of course, a principle with applicability outside the world of professional origami. But it's especially relevant to the fast-changing world of origami.)
(这个原则同样适用于非职业折纸的其他领域。但他尤其适用于快速变迁的折纸世界。)
So where and when do you start? It depends on where you are now.
那么从何时何地开始呢？这取决于你现在所处的位置。

The other thing you can do to advance your future origami prospects is: don't let your schoolwork suffer because origami has pushed it aside. Origami can be—almost certainly is—WAY more fun than the regular curriculum. But the better your grades are, the more likely you'll end up in control of your own destiny down the road.
另一点是，不要因为折纸而荒废了你的学业。折纸当然要比学习有趣的多。但是你的学历越高，你才越能够掌控你自己的命运。
What books should I get?
需要看什么书？
At this point, there's no specialized book to recommend; if you choose books based on what looks fun, you can't go wrong. "Recipe books"—books of folding instructions—are just fine for learning a range of techniques and getting exposure to ideas. If you're an intermediate folder looking to take a step up, I'd recommend any of Montroll's books, which are not too hard but expose a wide variety of clever folding ideas. To push your folding skills, the various books from Gallery Origami House and Origami-Shop.com will keep you plenty busy.
这里并没有特别推荐的书目，但是有趣是你选择书目的最重要的一点。“指导书”——折纸结构的书籍——可以用来学习大量的技巧并为创意提供动力。如果你已经是一个中等水平的折手，希望提高自己，Montroll的书（https://origamiusa.org/catalog/product-search?combine=montroll）是你的选择，不难，但是会对你的折纸创意提供大量的原材料。为了提高你的折纸技巧，从Gallery Origami House（http://www.origamihouse.jp/book/original/house.html）和Origami-Shop.com （http://www.origami-shop.com/）购买教程会让你忙的闲不下手。

太…专业了 果断收藏仔细琢磨

High School
高中
In high school, while there are many required courses, you*ll likely have some choice in what you take, and so here, you can take an active role in setting yourself up for success in the future of origami. So what should you take? What is the Official Origami Curriculum?
在高中（好吧，不是中国的高中），因为有一些必修课，你可以选择你要上的课程，来为你未来的折纸事业的成功，记下重要的一笔。所以你要选择什么课程呢？莫非是现代折纸概论？

Alas, there*s not a "core curriculum" in origami, in the sense of "you absolutely have to take this class." Almost any given class you could live without. But there are a couple of classes that will likely have a beneficial effect down the road.
呃，貌似没有那种你不学不行的折纸必修课。似乎所有的课程都与折纸无关。但是，还是有两门有用的课程可以选择的。

I would highly recommend taking some art classes in which you create art: drawing, sculpture, or other form of art. Yes, none of those classes will teach you origami (the fine arts still tend to get a bit snooty about origami. Their loss.) The things you are seeking to get out of art classes are knowledge and practice of technique: how to look at a subject and create a representation in another medium. What sorts of things are artistically valued. The importance of quality and craftsmanship.
强烈建议你选修一门艺术方面的课程，像是绘画拉，雕塑拉，等等。是的，那些课程不会教你如何折纸（还可能有些鄙视折纸……呵呵……）。那些艺术课程会教导你以下技巧和知识：如何观察事物，并用其他媒介表现出来。事物的哪些方面具有艺术价值。质量和工艺的重要性。

Also good would be some sort of digital art, involving 3D modeling, rendering, digital fabrication. This will also help your visualization skills when it comes to creating origami, but also, if you end up working as a designer (industrial design involving folding, graphic arts based on digital media), you*ll likely make use of similar skills. Now, the pace of digital tool evolution is rapid, so it*s almost certain that the specific digital skills you learn in high school will be obsolete by the time you get to college and work (I haven*t programmed in my high-school computer language—BASIC—in a really long time). But the general concepts will be useful. A general computer programming course would also help build a conceptual skill set.
涉及3d模型，渲染，数码制造的电子艺术也是可以的。在你进行折纸设计时，这些东西会对你的抽象化技巧提供帮助，如果你想成为一个设计师（涉及折叠的工业设计，基于数字媒体的图像艺术），你也会用到相似的技巧。当前，数码工具的演变速度很快，你在高中学到的数码技巧在你大学，工作时会落伍（我已经很久没有用我高中学到的C语言了）。但是大致的了解也是有必要的。一些通用的计算机编程课程也能帮助你获得一些基础的概念。

If you know me, my love of mathematics, and my use of mathematics in my origami design, you might be expecting me to recommend hard-core mathematics classes. And I suppose I do, with some qualifications: it*s not necessary for everyone, and mathematics is certainly not necessary to design very complex and sophisticated origami. One of the great accomplishments of the origami design revolution of the 1990s and 2000s was the development of purely graphical techniques for design, whereby one can design supercomplex figures doing nothing more sophisticated than drawing boxes, circles, and other shapes. So you don*t absolutely need fancy math.
如果你知道我，知道我喜欢数学以及我在折纸设计中用到数学技巧。你会猜我是不是会建议一些高深的数学课程。我的回答是，是的没错，但是事先说明：数学并不适用于每个人，在复杂折纸的设计中，数学也并不是必要的。20世纪末的折纸设计革命的最用要的成就就是促成了纯粹的图形化设计技术的发展，从那时起，人们可以仅仅通过话格子，圆圈和其他图形来设计超级复杂的折纸。所以你根本不需要认识拉格朗日-柯西-泰勒这个人。

But, back to Pasteur: chance favors the prepared mind. There is no question that in the vast space of not-yet-realized origami designs, the vast majority can only be attained by use of computational techniques. If you have an inclination toward mathematics, and want to explore the virgin reaches of origami design space, then I will highly suggest you take the relevant advanced mathematics. In particular, I recommend these classes:
Geometry
Algebra
Trigonometry
Linear Algebra (if it*s available)
但是，正如路易斯•巴斯德所说：“机会总是垂青有准备的人。”毫无疑问，对于现在还无法完成的折纸设计，只能寄希望于计算技巧。如果你对数学有兴趣，希望开垦折纸设计的新领域，那么我强烈建议你选择一些相关的高等数学课程。比如：几何，代数，三角和线性代数（如果有这门课的话）。

You probably can*t get all the way through that without some calculus along the way. That*s fine, too. Linear algebra is not often offered in high school, but if you can find a course (perhaps via a local community college), it*s pretty useful; it*s the mathematical language one uses to describe two- and three-dimensional objects.
如果没有一些微积分基础你可能并不能完成这些课程。那也没有关系。高中课程一般不包括线性代数，但是如果你能找到这门课（比如在当地的社区大学），他是很有用的。这是用于描述二维，三维事物的数学语言。