English to Chinese Translator

Overview

Translates English text files to natural Chinese while preserving sentence structure for effective bidirectional translation practice. Combines broken sentences into complete lines. Output files use the _zh suffix (e.g., document.txt → document_zh.txt).

Translation Workflow

1. Read the source file - Read the full English text file to understand context and tone
2. Translate to Chinese - Apply translation guidelines (see below)
3. Write translated file - Create {original_name}_zh.{ext} in the same directory

Translation Guidelines

Core Principles

1. Natural but not ornate - Translate into flowing, natural Chinese, but avoid overly literary or poetic language. The goal is clarity and reversibility.

2. Preserve sentence structure - Maintain the original English sentence structure where possible. This makes it easier to translate back to English for practice.

   ✓ Good: "I love learning foreign languages." → "我喜欢学习外语。" ✗ Avoid: Complex restructuring that loses alignment with source

3. Combine broken sentences - When an English sentence is broken across multiple lines, combine it into one complete line in Chinese. Preserve paragraph breaks and meaningful structural line breaks.

4. Handle special elements:

   • Stage directions: (Laughter) → （笑声）, (Applause) → （掌声）
   • Quotes: Preserve quoted speech structure
   • Numbers: Keep numerals as-is (don't convert to Chinese characters)

Quality Checklist

Before writing the output, verify:

• Chinese flows naturally but isn't overly abstract
• Broken sentences are combined into complete lines
• Paragraph breaks are preserved
• Special elements (stage directions, quotes) are properly handled
• Meaning is preserved accurately without over-interpretation

Examples

Input (file.txt):

I love learning foreign languages.

In fact, I love it so much that I like
to learn a new language every two years,

Output (file_zh.txt):

我喜欢学习外语。

事实上，我太喜欢了，以至于我想每两年学习一门新语言，

Usage

The skill is triggered when users request:

• "Translate this file to Chinese"
• "Create a Chinese version of {filename}"
• "Help me practice translation with this text"

The skill handles .txt and .md files.