I think that’s right, but I have been thinking about this (without actually looking at any code), and I think that Discourse Translator does something very similar. I think that’s where to start but “Hey so I’m not really knowledgeable with javascript” probably isn’t the skill level you need to pull it off.
I’m guessing that someone who’s familiar with writing plugins will need 5-10 hours (but maybe 2 for a proof of concept).