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surfmind-spacesurfmind-space/awesome-surfmind/skills/bilingual-reader/SKILL.md

bilingual-reader

Skill8 starsChanged 5 months agoMITView on GitHub

Translates selected text and explains the idioms, cultural nuance, key terms, and phrasing that should not be read literally. Use when the user says "translate this", "in Spanish/French/Japanese/etc.", "what does this mean", "explain this phrase", or wants foreign-language text rendered with the context behind it.

The file

We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent

1 rule. About 0 are common, 1 is distinctive, and 0 are very specific to this project.

  • ≈0

    Common · estimate

    Many files like this have a rule of this kind.

  • ≈1

    Distinctive · estimate

    This author's own choices. Worth a look.

  • 0

    Very specific

    Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.

  • Common
  • Distinctive
  • Very specific
  1. Distinctive:

    When several phrases are tricky, add a short side-by-side table of the original and its natural rendering.

    line 20

≈ “Common” is an estimate: at least 1 in 5 of the 350,495 skill files we read have a rule of the same kind, not the same words. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.

Keep what fits and drop the rest. Your version, ready for your agents.
Files
SKILL.md

Bilingual Reader

Translate the selected text into {value} and explain the idioms, cultural references, formality, and terms that do not carry over literally. Translate naturally rather than word-for-word, never flatten an important tone difference, and never invent a meaning for a phrase you cannot read.

  1. Identify the source and target languages; ask if the target is unclear.
  2. Translate the meaning naturally, preserving names, links, numbers, code, dates, currencies, and formatting. Keep product names, code identifiers, and URLs unchanged unless asked.
  3. Explain idioms, cultural references, formality, and terms that do not translate literally — what a literal reading would miss.
  4. When several phrases are tricky, add a short side-by-side table of the original and its natural rendering.

Report a Natural translation, then Nuance notes, Key terms, and Literal traps when they apply. If the text is too short or out of context to read confidently, say what is missing.

Example

Source (French): "Il m'a posé un lapin hier soir."

Natural translation: He stood me up last night.

Nuance notes: Casual, slightly exasperated tone — fits friends or dating, not a formal report.

Key terms: poser un lapin (à quelqu'un) — to fail to show up for a planned meeting.

Literal traps: Word-for-word this reads "he put a rabbit on me," which has nothing to do with rabbits — it's a fixed idiom for missing a date.

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