3.3.9 Source language

A simple question that asserted the dominance of English. Four respondents translate exclusively from a language other than English.

9. Which source language do/did you translate from?
Number of responses: 76
language	respondents	percentage
English	72	94,7%
Other:	16	21,1%
French	5
Russian	5
German	5
Spanish	2
Slovak	1
Polish	1

Table 8.

3.3.10 Other forms of fan translation

The total number of respondents who also engage in some other form of fan translation, apart from fanfiction translation, is 25 (32.8%). This result suggests that interest in translation as an activity, regardless of the medium, is a real and valid factor. No correlation was found between for example selecting fansubbing in this question and declaring having a degree in linguistics or a professional career in translation.

10. Apart from fanfiction translation, are/were you involved in any other form of fan translation?
Number of responses: 76
	respondents	percentage
No	52	68,4%
Fan translation of videogames	1	1,3%
Fansubbing – fan translation of TV/movie subtitles	21	27,6%
Other:	3	3,9%
book/s translation	2
song lyrics	1

Table 9.

3.3.11 Motivation

This was an open-ended question designed to explore the range of the fanfiction translator’s motivations and inspiration. The answers were coded into twelve categories with some potential overlaps between them. As the answers were quite diverse, much like fandom itself, and difficult to code accurately, no numerical breakdown will be given. However, it should be noted that the top 3 motives were not only dominant in terms of their frequency but also usually very clearly articulated and easy to identify. Each of the top 3 motives was in some form articulated by at least 1/4 of the respondents; the most frequent motive (enabling fans to read stories in their native language) was in some form articulated by more than 1/3 of the respondents.

Each of the motives listed as “other” was in some way articulated by at least 6 (that is more than 5% of the total number) and up to 13 respondents (approximately). The only exception to this is the last motive listed in the table, i.e. dissatisfaction with certain elements of the original texts, which was explicitly stated by 3 respondents. It was deemed too specific a motive to be merged with any other category. Coppa (2017, p. 136), while she fully acknowledges the vast, diverse and unquantifiable nature of fandom, for example points this motive out as one of the (many) driving forces in the Harry Potter fanfiction fandom, where many fans were explicitly dissatisfied with the original ending as presented in the Epilogue of the last book⁷⁶.

11. Why do/did you engage in fanfiction translation? (freeform, open-ended question, 500 character limit, responses coded into 12 categories)
Number of responses: 76
top three motives
Enabling fans to read stories in their own language
Language practice and improvement
Leisure activity, fun, relaxation
other motives
Community engagement, helping others with translating
Introducing high-quality stories to other fans
Lack of stories of a certain type
Passion for fanfiction in general (reading, writing, exploring theoretical aspects)
Appreciation of or respect for individual authors or stories
Love for the original world (e.g. books) and its characters
Passion for languages and translating
Personal satisfaction, getting positive feedback
Dissatisfaction with certain aspects of the original work (e.g. the books’ ending)
Table 10.

If we borrow from similar inquiries into motivations of other volunteer translator groups, the top three motives are among those almost universally observed in all or most volunteer translator communities. Enabling other users to enjoy certain content and translating for fun would both fall under the recreational aspect of community translation as described by Fernández Costales (2012). In an introduction to their sample study of Croatian fansubbing communities, describing a complex interplay of various volunteer translators’ motivations and related factors in a great detail, Čemerin and Toth (2014) name three main groups of motivating factors: political and social activism, personal motives (incl. sharing content in the translators’native language, language practice, or translating for fun), and self-promotion (“a certain amount of narcissism”).

While fandom as a whole is certainly home to many facets and forms of social activism (for example Jenkins, 2012), fanfiction translation does not perhaps comes across as a typical activism outlet. For example, one important aspect of community translation related to social and political activism, which can be summarized as providing translations and thus information free for all or, from the reverse perspective, providing free access to translated content (Fernández Costales, 2012), is missing in fanfiction translation due to the simple fact that the source content (in this case the original fanfiction story) is already free and intended by its author to be (in a majority of cases) enjoyed by as many people as possible⁷⁷. However, as fanfiction is often, implicitly or explicitly, described as an activity with a strong subversive potential, in line with the initial impulse for its emergence as a new form of writing being reimagining or reinterpreting original media content from the female perspective (for example Coppa , 2006), it seems valid to extend this characteristics onto fanfiction translation, too. While this social activism aspect was not explicitly formulated in any of the responses, it might have been hypothetically implicitly present in those responses that mentioned lack of stories of a certain type, lack of stories with a certain couple or dissatisfaction with the official versions of the stories. Such line of thinking is entering a potentially more sensitive and intimate area and it is therefore legitimate to assume it wouldn’t be necessarily verbalized, unless asked about explicitly.

All of the collected answers to this question are listed below:

“To improve my foreign language skills.”

“There are [fanfiction] stories on the internet that far exceed books in print today in terms of quality. I like languages, I like discussing various translation solutions with others and it would be a waste if non-English speaking fans wouldn’t have the opportunity to read a really good story.”

“Foreign webs contain a large number of good quality stories and these should be shared with other fans. Plus I also like improving my language skills in this way.”

“I was so captivated by an original work that I wanted to share it with the Czech audience.”

“It's an opportunity to improve my source language skills and to discover what my talent is.”

“Usually as part of my quest to share various information with non-English speaking fans – I like to introduce them to various fanfiction phenomena, share interesting articles with writing tips for beginners, or I translated subtitles for a movie that my Mum wanted to watch and for which the Czech subtitles weren't available.”

“At that time, I had a lot of free time and I enjoyed it. Lately I've been contemplating starting translating again.”

“To make the story available to my non-English speaking friends”

“The community centred around translating [fanfiction] stories that I read at that time drew me in.”

“It was a hobby and I wanted to help a friend”

“To enjoy the story in the original language + make it available to others”

“Improving my English, the desire to share a good story.”

“I'm fascinated by the world of Harry Potter.”

“I was a huge fan of certain translated fanfiction stories, but unfortunately some were never completed. That's why I started reading the rest of the stories in the original language. It led me to realize there must be a significant number of readers lacking the necessary language skills to be able to read the original story. Plus I really enjoy translating fiction of any kind.”

“I wanted to share stories that I considered good and I thought it was a shame a lot of people here can't read them.”

“Firstly, I enjoy it, and secondly, it helps me not to forget the foreign language as I have to actively use it.”

“I enjoy it.”

“Because today very few readers are able to read fanfiction stories in Russian or French, as opposed to English stories, because quite a lot of people can read in English.”

“I enjoyed translation as an activity and I wanted to introduce good stories to the Czech community, as the language barrier prevents some fans from reading them. I also enjoyed discussing various translation solutions with the other fan translators.”

“It felt great being able to share my favourite stories with the others and it was really rewarding to hear positive feedback.”

“I don't translate, I only perform proofreading (so occasionally I have to do some translating so as to understand what's going on). I had a great respect for translating and one day I felt a strong desire to be useful =)”

“I wanted to be able to read them myself, or I knew others would appreciate it.”

“Because I love them and wanted to make them available to readers, who haven't mastered English at all or not to the point, where they could read stories in it.”

“I wanted to bring awesome English fanfiction stories to people who can only speak Czech. It was/is also a way of improving my vocabulary.”

“I enjoy it, it's a productive leisure time activity. It also helped me get a feel for English, so using it became more natural to me. Plus I'm happy to be able to make my favourite stories available to the Czech and Slovak fans, who aren't that confident with their English skills.”

“Relaxation, fun, escape from reality”

“There were only few stories centred around a certain specific pairing, so I translated a couple of those from English.”

“I wanted to share stories that I liked with fans who have less talent for languages.”

“At first I wanted to improve my language skills and enjoy a story that was only partially translated. Now I translate for the joint benefit of others, so to speak, most notably for friends. It's a great feeling to see the translated story speak to someone, influence them or make them feel good...”

“fun”

“Above all, it was an opportunity to come in direct contact with language, style and story composition of authors that I personally greatly admired. It was a challenge to translate their stories so as to make them equally powerful in Czech. This experience proved very useful later when I started writing my own stories. I also wanted to make my favourite stories available to readers lacking the necessary English skills, who might perhaps leave a complimentary comment as a token of their appreciation :)”

“Because I follow a lot of pairings that aren't represented in any Czech stories.”

“I guess just… out of boredom?”

“Usually because the story blows me away and I want to share it with the others, who can't read in English.”

“The original story was so intriguing it would be a shame, if the Czech fans with no English skills missed it.”

“For the joy of being able to make a good story available to readers who don’t speak English”

“I enjoy it, I like being useful and I feel bad when a language barrier prevents someone from being able to read a beautiful fanfiction story.”

“For fun and to be able to understand the stories better.”

“So that other people, who cannot speak English, could enjoy the story. And a bit out of boredom.”

“Well it was a hobby...”

“Because [I loved] the world of Harry Potter. And at one point, I realized Czech stories weren't enough for me.”

“I'll try to be brief - I love fantasy/sci-fi worlds and I had been reading Harry Potter fanfiction for many years prior to that (since I was around 15?). I like to write (up until now mostly essayistic texts, rather than fiction) and I have always liked languages. I gradually became aware of some high-quality fanfiction stories, which weren't unfortunately translated into Czech – I thought it would allow me to combine my favourite activities, and through translating these masterpieces I would make them available to those who cannot speak English.”

“I read fanfiction and I know there is a lot of fans who can't or don't want to read stories in English. Some stories were too good to be confined to one language only.”

“I felt those stories should be made available to the Czech readers.”

“To improve my language skills, help the other translators.”

“I like fanfiction and enjoy translation.”

“I enjoy it, it helps me improve my passive language skills and my writing skills. I appreciate each and every comment because then I know there's someone who likes the translation, who actually reads it and that it makes someone happy.”

“it helps me expand my vocabulary and I can maintain my passive knowledge of German.”

“fun, relaxation”

“escape from reality into stories, because in fanfiction they at least can have the right ending (since the same can't be said about canon or real life)”

“Interesting plots and stories.”

“language practice”

“I enjoyed it”

“I like this genre and I enjoyed being able to combine my hobby with English practice.”

“For fun.”

“The story intrigued me.”

“Out of love for the language and to enable the Czech readers to read the stories.”

“Sometimes I'm so intrigued by a particular story, I can't stop thinking about how it would feel like in Czech and how I'd love to read it in my native language. And if there's no [translation?], it's all up to me.”

“There were very few or no fanfiction stories based on my favourite pairings, so I decided to introduce these stories to others and started translating them myself.”

“I enjoyed it, it was an opportunity to test and improve my [language?] skills.”

“It gives me the feeling of personal satisfaction and it's a fun way of practicing for my translation classes.”

“Because I didn't like the books' ending.”

“It's a step further from just reading fanfiction, it's an opportunity to be more actively engaged in this community, it helps me develop my potential (for example in work related areas); there aren't that many high-quality, untranslated stories, but when I decide to translate a fanfiction story, it usually has high-quality writing – in terms of quality, it often far exceeds fiction that gets officially translated and published.”

“I liked the plot and the fact the characters lived their own life outside of the books and movies.”

“I enjoyed it”

“fun, language improvement”

“The original books' narratives do not always progress the way I'd like them to. In contrast, some fanfiction stories progress exactly the way I'd like them to. I wished to alter the story in my head, without missing out on the reading experience – so I either wrote my own fanfiction stories, or I translated stories that were "in line" with my version of the story. Sharing the story was never the point. The translations were just for me.”

“I thought this way the stories could be enjoyed by people who can't read in English, and thought it would be a more effective language practice than just sitting over a textbook.”

“I wished to share my favourite story written in a foreign language and felt a need to retell the story in my native language (sometimes my beta reader steps in and wants to change something…)”

“Because I enjoyed it.”

“No one wanted to translate them and I was interested in knowing what the stories were about.”

“Because of the interesting adventures of my favourite characters. Also to improve my English.”

“I enjoyed it and needed a fun method to help improve my English.”

“I missed the books and knew a lot of people who missed them too.”

“English practice.”

“For fun, I enjoyed both reading and writing [fanfiction], so I wanted to be able to read the stories in other languages.”