Introduction
Hello! My name is Lester Matarrita, and this is my final report for the
WP Credits program at Universidad Fidélitas. During this program, I
contributed to the WordPress Polyglots team, translating strings into
Spanish for the Costa Rica locale (es_CR). This report summarizes my
contributions, the challenges I faced, the knowledge I gained, and how
this experience helped me grow as an open-source contributor.
Teams and Projects I Contributed To
I contributed to the Polyglots team, specifically the es_CR (Spanish –
Costa Rica) locale. My work focused on translating and suggesting strings
for two plugins: Complianz – GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent and WooCommerce.
My original goal was to translate at least 20 strings, but I ended up
translating far more than expected as I kept working through both
projects.
Learning Resources
I started with the Onboarding lessons on Learn WordPress, which explained
open-source basics, how decisions are made in the WordPress project,
community meeting etiquette, and how to write in the WordPress voice.
For the actual translation work, my professor provided our class with an
official glossary of technical terms to keep consistency across the
es_CR locale, which I used constantly to check how specific terms should
be translated instead of guessing.
Challenges and Solutions
My biggest challenge was dealing with syntax placeholders inside the
strings. WordPress strings often include things like %s, %d, or HTML
tags for bold or link formatting that have to stay exactly as they
appear in the original text. A few times, when I clicked the submit
button, the translation tool showed a small red validation error telling
me that something in my translation did not match the original format.
I learned to read that warning carefully, compare my translation against
the original string character by character, fix the mismatch, and submit
again.
Thisbefore even submitting, which made the whole process smoother as I kept
translating. happened more often with longer or more technical strings, especially
in WooCommerce, where some strings included multiple placeholders in the
same sentence. Over time, I got much faster at spotting these issues
My Contributions
Contributed translations for one of the most widely used e-commerce
plugins in WordPress, translating strings into Spanish (Costa Rica).
View my contributions
Translated and suggested strings for this plugin’s Spanish (Costa Rica)
locale, following the professor-provided glossary for consistency.
View my contributions
Translation Contributor Badge
Earned the official “Translation Contributor” badge from the Polyglots
team for my translation work in the es_CR locale, with a total of 366
translated strings and 30 suggested strings.
View my profile
Key Learnings from the WP Credits Program
The WP Credits program taught me that translation is not just about
changing words from one language to another. Small details like syntax
placeholders, proper names, and glossary consistency make the difference
between a good translation and a broken one. I also learned that every
submission goes through a review process by volunteers, which taught me
patience and attention to detail.
New Skills Gained
Technical: using translate.wordpress.org, following a professor-provided
glossary for consistency, handling syntax placeholders and HTML inside
strings correctly, understanding the difference between suggested and
approved translations.
Soft skills: patience during the review process, attention to detail,
and learning from rejected submissions instead of getting discouraged.
Personal reflections and next steps
I was surprised by how much I ended up contributing once I understood
the small technical details that make a translation correct, not just
“good enough.” I started with a goal of 20 strings and ended up
translating hundreds. Going forward, I plan to keep contributing to the
es_CR Polyglots team, paying closer attention to the details I struggled
with at first.
