diff --git a/config/scripts.yaml b/config/scripts.yaml
index 7880cd7d126..d4759e0654a 100644
--- a/config/scripts.yaml
+++ b/config/scripts.yaml
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ core:
   testonly: 'npx mocha tests/*.test.js'
 i18n:
   # react-scripts doesn't handle .mjs files correctly
-  prebuild: 'node src/prebuild.mjs'
+  prebuild: 'node scripts/prebuilder.mjs'
   test: *test
   testci: *testci
 new-design:
diff --git a/packages/i18n/package.json b/packages/i18n/package.json
index 8252b95f8ac..47220367b23 100644
--- a/packages/i18n/package.json
+++ b/packages/i18n/package.json
@@ -31,9 +31,9 @@
     "vbuild": "VERBOSE=1 node build.js",
     "lab": "cd ../../sites/lab && yarn start",
     "tips": "node ../../scripts/help.mjs",
-    "prebuild": "node src/prebuild.mjs",
+    "prebuild": "node scripts/prebuilder.mjs",
     "testci": "npx mocha tests/*.test.mjs --reporter ../../tests/reporters/terse.js",
-    "precibuild_step7": "node src/prebuild.mjs",
+    "precibuild_step7": "node scripts/prebuilder.mjs",
     "cibuild_step7": "node build.js"
   },
   "peerDependencies": {
diff --git a/packages/i18n/scripts/prebuilder.mjs b/packages/i18n/scripts/prebuilder.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..65dd971a48a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/i18n/scripts/prebuilder.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+import {build} from '../src/prebuild.mjs'
+
+// call this here instead of in the src/prebuild.mjs so that build isn't called by other files importing that build function
+build()
diff --git a/packages/i18n/src/prebuild.mjs b/packages/i18n/src/prebuild.mjs
index 76a27d8bcf7..db65b36def9 100644
--- a/packages/i18n/src/prebuild.mjs
+++ b/packages/i18n/src/prebuild.mjs
@@ -108,10 +108,10 @@ const getNamespacesFromFileList = async (files, locales, only=false) => {
     let file = files[i]
 
     let loc = localeFromFileName(file);
-    if (locales.indexOf(loc) === -1) return
+    if (locales.indexOf(loc) === -1) continue
 
     let namespace = namespaceFromFile(file);
-    if (only === true && only.indexOf(namespace) === -1) return
+    if (only === true && only.indexOf(namespace) === -1) continue
 
     if (typeof namespaces[loc] === 'undefined') {
       namespaces[loc] = {}
@@ -216,12 +216,11 @@ const writeFiles = async allNamespaces => {
 export const build = async (localeFilter = () => true, only=false) => {
   const files = await getTranslationFileList()
   const locales = getLocalesFromFileList(files).filter(localeFilter)
+  console.log('building i18n for', locales)
   const namespaces = await getNamespacesFromFileList(files, locales, only)
 
   await writeFiles(namespaces)
 }
 
-build()
-
 //export default strings