WP Credits final report

Introduction

I’m Diego Araya, a student at Universidad Fidélitas in Costa Rica, and this is my final report for the WP Credits program. Over the past weeks, I contributed to the Polyglots team by translating WordPress projects into Spanish (Costa Rica). This report summarizes what I worked on, what I learned, and how the experience shaped me as a contributor.

Teams and projects I contributed to

I contributed to the Polyglots team, which translates WordPress into other languages. My goal was to reach 300 translation contributions into Spanish (Costa Rica) on translate.wordpress.org, working on projects like the Forums and Gutenberg, so more people can use WordPress in their own language.

Learning resources

• Polyglots Translator Handbook
• The Spanish style guide and glossary used by the Spanish translation team
• Learn WordPress courses: Open source basics and WordPress, How decisions are made in the WordPress project, Community meeting etiquette, Writing in the WordPress voice, Basic principles of conflict resolution and Beginner WordPress User
• The #wpcredits channel on the Making WordPress Slack, plus guidance from my mentor

Challenges and solutions

My first challenge was keeping my translations consistent. Many words can be translated in more than one way, so I went back to the glossary and the style guide often until it became a habit.

Another challenge was that my translations stay as suggestions until an editor reviews them, so not all of my work showed as approved right away. I learned to be patient, keep translating and follow up on pending suggestions.

Finally, balancing WP Credits with my job and my last term at university was not easy. I handled it by setting aside a few fixed hours every week just for translating.

My contributions

• 175 strings translated and approved in Spanish (Costa Rica) on translate.wordpress.org, plus many more suggestions submitted for review
• Earned the Translation Contributor badge on my WordPress.org profile
• Completed 6 courses on Learn WordPress
• Built this portfolio site and documented my progress on this blog
• My contributions can be seen on my profile: profiles.wordpress.org/diegoaraya26

Key learnings from the WP Credits program

The program taught me that open source is about people as much as it is about the work. Behind every approved string there is someone reviewing it and caring about quality.

I also learned that translation is more than changing words. It is about keeping one clear voice so that WordPress feels natural to everyone who uses it in Spanish.

New skills gained

• Technical: using translate.wordpress.org (GlotPress), following a style guide and glossary, building and managing a WordPress site
• Soft skills: asynchronous communication with people in different time zones, time management, writing in English for a public audience, and receiving feedback

Personal reflections and next steps

What I enjoyed most was seeing my translations get approved and knowing they will be used by real people. I was surprised by how open and organized the community is; everything is documented, and anyone can join and help.

After WP Credits, I plan to keep translating with the Polyglots team and, in the future, I would like to learn what it takes to become a translation editor.