The conversation your counterpart is having in their head
Most people assume an interpreter’s job is to translate what is said.
It is. But only partly.
The more interesting part of the job is managing what goes unsaid. The moment when someone understands perfectly well but cannot find the words, or finds them and hesitates, or has the words and the confidence but doesn't quite get the accent on the other end.
That gap, between what someone knows and what they can comfortably express in a foreign language, is where a lot of British-LatAm relationships quietly break down.
The situation
A Latin American Secretary for International Trade visited the UK for a series of high-level meetings. His English was good — he told me so himself during our briefing, and he was right. But he also told me he sometimes struggled with certain accents and with the particular pressure of speaking a foreign language in public, in front of people who were evaluating him as well as his message.
Traditional interpreting, where everything is translated back and forth, bidirectionally and continuously, would have been cumbersome. It would have slowed the conversation, added formality he didn’t need, and drawn attention to a limitation he was perfectly capable of managing himself.
So we used what I call face-saving interpreting instead.
The friction
Face-saving interpreting is not a standard mode you will find in a textbook. It is a setup designed around a specific and common situation: the person who understands more than they feel confident expressing.
In this case, I stayed present throughout, following every word. I stepped in only when the Secretary spoke in Spanish, interpreting his words into English for his British counterparts. Everything said to him in English, he handled himself. I was his safety net, not his voice.
Then came the networking session. He was doing well — handling a heavy Scottish accent better than most — when the conversation turned to Beefeaters’ Gin. I could see from his expression that the name wasn’t landing. Not the accent this time. Just the reference.
I moved close, as if to interpret something, and whispered in his ear. He nodded. Carried on. Gave me a thumbs up behind his back.
Slot v. Flow in action
This is a conversational dimension issue, but the friction is not linguistic. It is about face.
In Latin American professional environments, being seen to struggle in a foreign language — especially in a high-status context, in front of counterparts you are trying to impress — carries real social cost. Not because weakness is unacceptable, but because the relationship being formed in those early meetings is partly built on the impression of competence and ease. Visible struggle, even momentary, can shift the register of the whole interaction.
The same applies in reverse. A British professional who stumbles visibly in a Spanish-speaking environment, or who is clearly dependent on an interpreter for basic comprehension, gives a different signal than one who navigates with quiet confidence. The signal is not about language skill. It is about whether this person can hold their own in your world.
Face-saving interpreting exists to protect that signal. The Slot v. Flow system exist for the same reason: not to eliminate the gap between two cultures, but to help people cross it without losing ground in the process.
Over to you
In your last high-stakes British-LatAm meeting, was the interpreter — or the absence of one — protecting both parties’ face, or quietly costing one of them?
Until next Tuesday,
Cecilia
Founder, Multilateral Studio · Author, Slot v Flow
