Perfectionist: To Be or Not to Be

If you’re anything like me, you will focus on the negative after an interpreting session. You could have done an amazing job for hours, except for one or two little things. Maybe they’re not even mistakes, but rather clarifications, repetition requests, pauses for research or simply literal translations of certain words or phrases. But those things can make you feel like a failure because, well, you weren’t perfect. Your performance wasn’t flawless.

Perfectionism is a strange thing. It can be good in that it makes you strive to be the best you can possibly be. However, it can also be bad in that it keeps you from feeling accomplished and proud when you should despite minor imperfections. When we mess up, instead of thinking, “Oh, well,” we internally react as if it’s the end of the world. This causes a chain reaction of blunders due to the nerves, frustration and embarrassment that inevitably come with a feeling of failure.

As language professionals, let us collectively find the balance between striving for perfection, forgiving ourselves for imperfection and being proud of ourselves when we do a great—or even a good—job.

Now let’s talk about one of the things that makes us feel bad about our performance, forgetting equivalent words and phrases which causes us to resort to literal translations unless we pause for research.

A few years back, while interpreting witness testimony during a preliminary hearing, the witness repeatedly said the same phrase on different occasions: “por la necesidad.” In the moment, I interpreted this as “because of the need,” but I internally cringed every time it came out of my mouth because I knew that was not right. However, I could not for the life of me remember the equivalent phrase in English. Then, an hour and a half later, when I was walking out of the courthouse, similar to l’esprit de l’escalier, it came to me: “out of necessity!”

Let’s break this down. Was this a mistake? Hardly. It was a literal translation. Everyone understood the meaning. It just didn’t sound natural.

More recently, while interpreting an individual hearing at immigration court, the respondent on testimony said that his father attended a “programa de alfabetización.” I knew exactly what he meant, but then panicked because I couldn’t remember how to say it in English. When no word came to me, I thought I was overthinking it. I interpreted it literally as “alphabetization program,” and immediately realized that was wrong. I remember thinking, “No, it’s like legible, but not legible. It starts with an ‘L.’” Then, it came to me, and I said, “Your Honor, may the interpreter make a correction for the record?” He replied with a smirk and a slight giggle, “PLEASE!” “Literacy program, not alphabetization.”

Breakdown: Mistake? Yes, but was it corrected? Also, yes. Was it embarrassing? Maybe, but it was also funny, and I’m sure the judge was not the only one who enjoyed it.

This happens to all of us. I was talking to an interpreter friend the other day who was so happy to hear these stories as she thought it only happened to her in English because it is her B language (it is my A language). It turns out that forgetting basic words in any of your spoken languages is just a side effect of the cognitive overload we experience while doing this incredible work.

The next time you finish interpreting and are mentally debriefing, take a moment to recognize everything you did well and congratulate yourself. If you had some cringy moments, remind yourself that everyone messes up, and that you will do better next time.

I hope all of my fellow linguists enjoyed the holidays! Here’s to a happy, peaceful and prosperous 2025!

– Blog post written by Tirzah Riddle, MICATA Director and Spanish Court Interpreter