Meet Nadine, a French-English bilingual translator whose journey reflects the experiences of many Translators without Borders (TWB) community members. Her story, inspired by the voices and insights shared in the 2024 TWB Community survey, offers a genuine glimpse into the heart of our volunteer network. Nadine’s motivations and challenges reflect those of many in our community. Find out what we’re doing to keep volunteers motivated and supported while addressing the common issues in the language industry and the humanitarian sector.
Nadine’s roots and professional development
Born in Yaoundé, Cameroon, Nadine considers herself lucky for growing up in a bilingual household. Her mother, a high school French teacher, insisted on speaking French at home, while her father, who worked for an international development agency, often brought English-speaking colleagues to their home for dinner. Like many of TWB volunteers who responded to our survey, Nadine’s multilingualism is deeply rooted in both her formal education and lived experience.
“In our neighborhood, most children grew up speaking at least two languages,” Nadine recalls. “My childhood friends and I would switch between French, English, and sometimes Ewondo without even thinking about it. It wasn’t until I moved to France that I realized what a gift this multilingual upbringing had been.“
TWB volunteers have diverse multilingual backgrounds, with formal education being the most common foundation (26%), followed by professional use (23%) and regular consumption of content in their languages (20%). We are actively working to expand the information volunteers can add to their TWB profiles, to make sure they encompass the diverse and multiple languages and backgrounds of our community.
When Nadine was 22, she moved to Lyon, France to continue her studies in translation. After completing her degree, Nadine began working as a freelance translator in Lyon, primarily handling commercial and legal documents. While work paid the bills, she longed to use her skills for something more impactful.
Discovering TWB: A Purpose-Driven Community
Two years ago Nadine stumbled upon a post about Translators without Borders, now part of CLEAR Global. The mission immediately resonated with her.
“I still remember the testimonial that caught my attention,” she says. “It was from a translator who had worked on health information during the Ebola crisis. I signed up that same evening.”
Nadine’s initial motivation mirrors what our survey revealed as the primary driver for most volunteers: the desire to help others through their language skills.
The desire to help others is the strongest motivation among TWB volunteers, with more than a quarter of all motivations selected, followed by the opportunity to work with humanitarian organizations (19%) and gaining professional experience (17%).
“Of course, there were professional benefits too,” Nadine admits. “As a freelancer still establishing my career, the chance to work on real-world humanitarian content while building my portfolio was incredibly valuable. But honestly, that feeling of making a tangible difference is what keeps me coming back.”
Like many TWB volunteers, Nadine has had to find her own pace for contributing while managing her professional and personal commitments. Our survey shows that volunteers engage at different frequencies, with many finding time to contribute once or twice per year.
Volunteer frequency among TWB members varies, with 41% contributing once or twice per year, while more than a third volunteer monthly or more frequently. Interestingly, nearly 23% of respondents identify as members but haven’t yet volunteered. While we know that the availability of traditional translation and revision projects can be a challenge, we are adapting our strategy to include new technologies and tasks. We’re actively exploring ways to leverage emerging tools like generative AI, and we’re excited to offer different opportunities for you to contribute. For example, you can volunteer for content creation or Partner Teams.
Nadine has learned to be patient with some frequent challenges of volunteering. The most common one, cited by 25% of survey respondents, is task availability, particularly for widely spoken language pairs like French/English.
“There are evenings when I log in, eager to find a project to work on, but discover that all the tasks in my language pair have already been claimed,” she explains.
This experience prompted Nadine to update her TWB profile. She added desktop publishing and interpreting to the list of services she can provide, and added Ewondo to her combinations, a language spoken in parts of Cameroon, to her skills list.
“I’m not fully fluent in Ewondo -I understand more than I can speak- but I noted my limited proficiency in my profile. I thought it might help me contribute in different ways, perhaps as a reviewer or cultural consultant for projects in that region.”
Another challenge mentioned by survey respondents was the technical learning curve.
While 18% of volunteers regularly use TWB’s terminology resources, nearly two-thirds are unaware of these tools, and about 15% either find them difficult to use or prefer using their own resources.
Over her two years with TWB, Nadine has worked on diverse projects ranging from COVID-19 vaccine information to educational materials for refugee children and consent forms for humanitarian aid.
“Last month, I translated healthcare materials about maternal care that will be distributed in rural Cameroon,” Nadine shares. “The project was particularly meaningful because it connected to my roots, but it also challenged me professionally.”
This experience of professional growth through volunteer work aligns with what 55% of our survey respondents identified as a key benefit: developing expertise in new areas and learning specialized skills.
A future-thinking Community: Embracing technology
As the translation industry evolves with new technologies, Nadine is curious about how AI tools might complement her work. Our survey revealed varied levels of experience with AI development projects among our volunteers.
While about a third of TWB volunteers don’t have AI experience, more than 42% do have experience with AI development tasks, showing significant engagement with emerging technologies in our community.
Nadine recently took TWB’s MTPE (Machine Translation Post-Editing) course, her first foray into AI-assisted translation.
“The course opened my eyes to how these tools can speed up certain aspects of translation work, allowing me to take on more volunteer projects. But it also emphasized the critical importance of human oversight, especially for nuanced communication in healthcare or crisis contexts.“
Volunteers express the most interest in training for transcription (with over a third of respondents selecting this option), while about a fifth each are interested in data annotation, voice recording, or indicated they’re not interested in AI development training.
As Nadine has gained more experienced with TWB, she’s begun considering how she might take on additional responsibilities within the organization. The survey revealed that many seasoned volunteers are interested in mentoring or leadership roles.
Many TWB volunteers express interest in taking on additional roles, with more than half interested in helping gather and translate short sentences, and 44% willing to serve as language experts for specific domains. Team leadership and project management roles also attract significant interest from about a third of our community members.
“I’ve been thinking about becoming more involved with the Francophone African community,” Nadine explains. “Maybe helping to recruit new volunteers or advising on cultural context for projects in that region.“
As Nadine continues her journey with TWB, she embodies the dedication and diverse skills of our global volunteer community. Her aspirations include crisis communication translation and contributing to language technology initiatives focused on African languages. Through volunteers like Nadine, TWB bridges critical language gaps across the globe.
“Sometimes I think about the people who read my translations… That connection, even if it’s invisible, is what makes this work so powerful and satisfying.“
Overall satisfaction among TWB volunteers is high, with more than four-fifths reporting they are ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with their experience.