Mel Hassan, Egypt
Our Listener – Mel Hassan, Egypt
“Machines hear sound. Humans understand meaning.”
In the quiet of her home in Ismailia, Egypt, Mel Hassan sits at her desk with her headphones on, and the faint hum of life outside her window. It’s here, between sound and silence, that she listens, not just to words, but to what lies behind them. Since 2018, she has been one of Way With Words’ most seasoned transcribers, trusted with some of the company’s most intricate audio. What drew her to this work wasn’t coincidence. It was curiosity.
“I’ve always loved language and problem-solving,” she says, her tone calm, reflective. “So transcription felt like a natural fit.” What sealed her connection with Way With Words was something deeper than a job listing, it was the company’s reputation for precision and global collaboration. “It stood out for its accuracy and reach, exactly the kind of challenge I was looking for.”
Over the years, Mel has come to know the peculiar intimacy of transcription. Every new recording opens a window into other lives such as scientists debating breakthroughs, families preserving stories, people struggling to be understood. “It takes you into other people’s worlds,” she says, “and every time, you learn something new.”
But beyond skill and focus, transcription demands a kind of empathy that can’t be programmed. Mel recalls a recording that still sits with her: a woman living with a neurodegenerative disease, speaking slowly, her voice faltering with effort. “It took time, listening again and again, but her voice came through,” Mel says. “Fragile, determined, unforgettable.” What might have been discarded by an algorithm as noise became, through human care, a record of courage.
That moment captures what she believes defines the difference between people and machines. “I once transcribed a panel full of overlapping voices, heavy accents, and technical jargon,” she remembers. “The AI transcript missed half of it. I caught the context, clarified the terms, and made it readable. Machines hear sound. Humans understand meaning. That’s the difference.” She says it simply, but it lingers like truth.
Her days follow a rhythm shaped by listening, focused hours at the desk punctuated by bursts of life. She laughs about her grown child who still believes she knows everything. “I don’t, but I fake it well.” Between projects, she reads “like it’s oxygen,” writes when the mood hits, and keeps the music up – blues, rock, jazz, anything with soul. “Whatever makes the dishes dance,” she grins. It’s this easy mix of humour, intellect, and groundedness that defines her work as much as her words.
Precision, she insists, is only part of the craft. The rest is intuition. “A great transcriber or editor doesn’t just capture words – they bring clarity to complexity. They hear through noise, catch the unsaid, and shape spoken language into something that breathes on the page.” To her, transcription is an act of care: every pause, hesitation, and tone tells a story. “It’s precision, focus, and skill in every line,” she says, but also “a quiet responsibility to do justice to someone’s voice.”
Mel has witnessed the rise of automation, but she remains convinced that the human touch will always matter. It’s not sentimentality … it’s observation. “You can train an algorithm to detect words, but not to understand emotion,” she explains. “There’s a subtlety in how people speak, such as the sigh before a confession, the laugh after a hard truth. That’s where meaning lives.”
Outside her window, the city of Ismailia hums with movement, the Suez Canal not far away, the air thick with sun and history. Inside, Mel listens. Somewhere in the world, another recording begins, another voice waiting to be heard clearly. She adjusts her headphones, opens a new file, and presses play.
In her quiet, steady way, Mel embodies what Way With Words has long stood for: people who bring intelligence and empathy to the work of listening. Her precision is matched only by her humanity. And in every transcript, she leaves a small imprint of both.
Company Note
Way With Words works with professional transcribers and editors around the world who bring human insight, care, and precision to every project. Our contractor stories celebrate the people behind the words—those who keep language clear, accurate, and profoundly human.