diff --git a/docs/goodtoknow.rst b/docs/goodtoknow.rst
index 6314b133..14682126 100644
--- a/docs/goodtoknow.rst
+++ b/docs/goodtoknow.rst
@@ -62,6 +62,8 @@ Which can also be activated in the code using :py:func:`xclim.core.options.set_o
 
 Translation is of course not automatic but relies on manually populated `gettext <https://docs.python.org/3/library/gettext.html?highlight=gettext#module-gettext>`_ catalogs. xscen ships with a catalog of french (fr) translations. See :ref:`translating-xscen` to learn how to add translations to xscen. xclim's documentation of the same subject is `here <https://xclim.readthedocs.io/en/stable/internationalization.html>`_.
 
+If your xscen is installed in "editable" mode in its source directory (``pip install -e .``), you should run ``make translate`` each time you pull changes from the upstream source.
+
 Module-wide options
 -------------------
 
diff --git a/xscen/utils.py b/xscen/utils.py
index c7d931a8..ff19854c 100644
--- a/xscen/utils.py
+++ b/xscen/utils.py
@@ -55,12 +55,16 @@
 If a language is not defined or a message not translated, the function will return the raw message.
 """
 
-
-for loc in (Path(__file__).parent / "data").iterdir():
-    if loc.is_dir() and len(loc.name) == 2:
-        TRANSLATOR[loc.name] = gettext.translation(
-            "xscen", localedir=loc.parent, languages=[loc.name]
-        ).gettext
+try:
+    for loc in (Path(__file__).parent / "data").iterdir():
+        if loc.is_dir() and len(loc.name) == 2:
+            TRANSLATOR[loc.name] = gettext.translation(
+                "xscen", localedir=loc.parent, languages=[loc.name]
+            ).gettext
+except FileNotFoundError as err:
+    raise ImportError(
+        "Your xscen installation doesn't have compiled translations. Run `make translate` from the source directory to fix."
+    ) from err
 
 
 def update_attr(ds, attr, new, others=None, **fmt):