Blog Nicolás García

Introduction

Hello everyone! I’m Nicolás García, a professional English to Spanish translator and vocational training student based in Toledo, Spain. I’m excited to share my final report for the WP Credits course. This report summarizes my localization contributions, the challenges I faced dealing with technical terminology, and the skills I gained along the way. I hope my experience inspires others to see that contributing to open-source projects isn’t just for developers—translators play a crucial role too!

Teams and Projects I Contributed To

I actively contributed to the Polyglots Team. My main goal was expanding the accessibility of the WordPress ecosystem for Spanish-speaking users. I focused on translating and localizing strings for major plugins into Spanish (Castilian), ensuring that small businesses and web creators have access to high-quality tools in their native language.

Learning Resources

To get started, I relied heavily on the Polyglots Contributor Handbook and familiarized myself with the translate.wordpress.org platform (GlotPress). I also applied my ongoing studies in B2-level technical English for Information Technology and business correspondence to ensure the translations were accurate and professional. My mentor, Roberto Vázquez, guided me through the process of setting up a local development environment and submitting my first patch.

Challenges and Solutions

1. Contextual Accuracy: Translating isolated strings without seeing the final interface can lead to translation errors, especially with complex technical, database, or SEO terminology.
2. Consistency: Maintaining a unified voice across different plugins with entirely different purposes (e-commerce vs. web accessibility).Solutions:I resolved this by heavily leveraging the official Spanish WordPress glossaries and community style guides. Whenever I encountered highly technical backend strings or variable declarations, I drew upon my own background in PL/SQL database management and IT English to decipher the context and provide the most accurate Spanish equivalent.

My Contributions

I am proud to share that during this period, I contributed over 700 total translated strings to the WordPress ecosystem.

Here is a breakdown of my main contributions:

• Google for WooCommerce: Localized 298 strings specifically for the Marketing and Analytics extension.
• Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) & CookieYes: Translated a combined total of 218 strings to improve web development and legal compliance tools.
• WPCode: Translated 54 strings for this code snippet management software.

Key Learnings from the WP Credits Course

The WP Credits course taught me the true value of global open-source collaboration. I learned how to:

• Navigate the translation workflows on translate.wordpress.org and understand the approval processes.
• See the direct impact of localization: every string I translate helps a local business owner manage their online store or comply with cookie laws.
• Understand the broader structure of the WordPress community and how different teams (like Core, Support, and Polyglots) interconnect.

New Skills Gained

Through this project, I gained:

• Technical Skills: Mastery of the GlotPress localization platform, a deeper understanding of plugin architectures (from WooCommerce to SEO and database custom fields), and advanced application of technical IT English.
• Soft Skills: High attention to detail, asynchronous collaboration with a global community, and strict adherence to open-source style guides and glossaries.

1.8. Personal Reflections and Next Steps

Reaching the milestone of over 700 translated strings was an incredibly rewarding experience. It is amazing to know that my work directly empowers Spanish users to build better websites. Moving forward, I plan to continue my work with the Polyglots team, with the future goal of becoming a Project Translation Editor (PTE) for some of the plugins I use the most. I’d love to hear from other translators in the community—feel free to reach out!

Once you publish this on your blog, don’t forget to grab the URL and submit it via your personal form link to complete the “Prepare and deliver a wrap-up presentation” lesson!