Hi y’all! I’m Fernando, and I’m very excited to share my final report for the WP Credits course. This report summarizes my contributions to the Polyglots Team, the challenges I faced, and the skills I gained. I hope my experience inspires others to contribute to open-source projects, and mostly to learn as much as I have!
I contributed to the WordPress Polyglots team, specifically translating themes. I’ve focused on translating the theme W3Construct, suggesting about 1k strings on it.
I started by reading the Handbook that the WordPress team handed to us, and checking the Slack channels of WP Spain. My mentor, Angel Zinsel, guided me through the process of translating every string, and he was so helpful whenever I needed him. He was always there, and I really appreciate it.
One of the first challenges that I faced twins getting used to translating using the informal «you» instead of the formal «you», but with a little practice, I got used to it. Another little issue I had was when I watched the courses; some of the tutorials were not up to date, so it was a little confusing when I accessed the page editor for the first time. However, everything was so easy to find that it wasn’t a big deal.
Now, here is my main contribution, which I tried to translate completely, but didn’t have enough time:
W3Construct: Translated about 1k strings, as my profile shows.
For starters, the WP Credits course taught me a lot about the importance of following a guidebook, when I hadn’t ever really thought it would be so helpful. Also, it helped me to see how easy it is for anyone with no knowledge of programming to create their own page without knowing how to code. And finally, it showed me how important it is to have someone who is constantly caring about how you are doing with the work you are assigned to do, and if you need any help.
Through the WP Credits course, I have gained a lot of skills. For example:
– Communication: I’ve learned that it’s not bad to ask for help when you don’t know how to do something, or to help others kindly if they need it.
– Experimenting: If you get out of your comfort zone, you will learn a lot of things, mostly by trying new things to see if «it looks cool».
Contributing to WordPress has been a very interesting experience. I was surprised by how welcoming the community is to people who are just starting! Moving forward, I plan to mentor new contributors and explore leadership roles in the Training Team. I’d love to hear from others who’ve contributed!
