---
name: translation
description: "Translate text between Chinese and English with cultural adaptation and natural tone."
whenToUse: "User asks to translate text between Chinese and English"
---

# Skill: Translation (Chinese-English)

## Description
Translate text between Chinese and English with cultural adaptation, natural tone, and technical term consistency. Optimized for Microsoft PM work context.

## When to Use
- User asks to translate text between Chinese and English
- User says "翻译一下" or "translate this"
- User needs to convert Chinese notes to English email or vice versa
- User needs help polishing English/Chinese writing

## Translation Principles

### 1. Meaning Over Literal
- Don't translate word-by-word — translate the meaning
- Chinese idioms → English equivalents (not literal)
- English jargon → Natural Chinese (not transliteration)

### 2. Tone Matching
| Source Tone | Translation Approach |
|------------|---------------------|
| Formal business email | Maintain formality level |
| Casual team chat | Keep it casual and natural |
| Technical document | Precise terminology, clear structure |
| Leadership update | Confident, data-driven, concise |

### 3. Technical Term Consistency
Keep these in English (don't translate):
- Product names: Copilot, BizChat, Teams, Outlook
- Technical terms: token, cache, latency, API, LLM, prompt
- Metrics: CIE, DAU, MAU, P95, SLA
- Methodologies: Agile, Scrum, sprint, standup

### 4. Chinese → English
```
Approach:
1. Understand the full meaning in Chinese
2. Restructure for English grammar (SVO, shorter sentences)
3. Make it sound native — not "translated from Chinese"
4. Keep technical terms in English
5. Adjust formality for Western business culture
```

Common patterns:
- 关于...的问题 → "Regarding..." or just state the issue directly
- 请问一下 → Remove (just ask the question directly)
- 辛苦了 → "Thanks for your help" / "Appreciate the effort"
- 麻烦你了 → "Would you mind..." / "Could you please..."

### 5. English → Chinese
```
Approach:
1. Understand the full meaning in English
2. Restructure for Chinese flow (topic-comment, longer compound sentences OK)
3. Make it sound natural Chinese — not "翻译腔"
4. Keep technical terms in English (don't force-translate)
5. Adjust for Chinese business culture (more polite hedging)
```

Common patterns:
- "I'd like to..." → 我想...
- "Could you..." → 麻烦你.../能不能帮忙...
- "FYI" → 供参考
- "Heads up" → 提前知会一下
- "Action needed" → 需要你的action

### 6. Quality Checks
- Read the translation out loud — does it sound natural?
- Would a native speaker write it this way?
- Are all technical terms consistent?
- Is the tone appropriate for the audience?
- No "翻译腔" (translationese)

## Example

### Chinese → English
```
Chinese: 这个feature的latency有点高，P95到了2秒，我们需要跟engine team对齐一下优化方案，争取下个sprint能降到1.5秒以下。

English: The latency for this feature is higher than expected — P95 is at 2 seconds. We need to sync with the engine team on an optimization plan, targeting sub-1.5s by next sprint.
```

### English → Chinese
```
English: We're seeing a regression in cache hit rate after the last deployment. The impact is ~5% increase in token consumption. I've filed a bug and the team is investigating.

Chinese: 上次部署后cache hit rate出现了回退，token消耗大概增加了5%。Bug已经提了，团队在排查中。
```
