How to Localise Software Into Costa Rican Spanish

When it comes to software development, it is a best practice to create source content in English and later invest in the localisation to reach multiple markets. In the case of Spanish, which is a very large and diverse market, the most common approach is to localise to three main variants:

• from English to Spanish from Spain (es_ES)

• to Spanish from Latin American (es_LA)

• to Spanish from the United States (es_US)

It is also very common to add Mexican or Argentinian Spanish to the localisation strategy or to make more regional localisations of specific content type, like marketing collaterals, to reduce costs, but texts aren’t adapted.

As new market needs emerge, more local developers are embarking on revolutionary and competitive ideas to satisfy the Costa Rican businesses.

An example of this is Wink, an online banking that allows you to open accounts in dollars and colones (currency of Costa Rica), save and withdraw money from your PayPal account for a $4 fixed fee, among other features.

The Wink mobile app is developed in Costa Rica, and Costa Rican Spanish is the original source language.

From the localisation perspective, this is a great opportunity to assess the expectations of this audience and recognise some of the peculiarities that matter if you want to successfully adapt a product to the Costa Rican market—“The tico market.”

The Typical Recipe for a Costa Rican Localisation and Translation

The Use of “vos”, Even in Formal Contexts

Wink is an innovative product, and therefore seeks to stand out from the traditional banking institutions. When you open the app for the first time, you realise Wink uses the register “vos.”

This is a curious fact because your expectation is that a banking institution will be formal and address the user using the formal you “usted” or “tú” (if it is an international app).

A traditional bank usually reflects an image of reliability and trust. In the case of Wink, the use of “vos” gave me the impression that the people behind it were young and self-starter, but that perhaps their product lack a more robust and safe structure.

These first impressions are not entirely negative, as a young and visionary development team is what it takes to design a modern, agile and cost-effective application that understands the needs of a more specific user.

The use of “vos” does represent the profile of the target user, an equally small-business owner, who maintains economic activities abroad and who is familiar with this type of online financial services.

The Use of Costa Rican Greetings and Terms

Wink uses typical Costa Rican greetings to get closer to users such as “pura vida” to say “hello” and “thank you.”

The term “compas” is the equivalent to buddy, friend or mate in Spain.

The ID number or ID card is known as “cédula” in Costa Rica.

The Use of Costa Rican Spanglish

Appropriate use of English terms. While it is true that Latin Americans more easily adopt anglicisms than the Spanish, each country or region uses different terms more often than others; therefore, the introduction of these to the localisation of Spanish for Latin America can be very complex.

“Irse de ride a un destino turístico” (“Go for a ride to a tourist destination” in English) is a typical Costa Rican idiom.

An exception to this would be the word “selfie”, which is recognised and accepted by most Spanish speakers, including Costa Rica.

There are still dozens of aspects to be discovered, all of which are valuable from the point of view of localisation. This case study only serves as a reference to visualise the diversity between regions and countries of Latin America, whose features are often difficult to articulate even by experts themselves.

In fact, people generally tend to underestimate the difficulty of constructing texts that are truly natural for the user/target. We do not doubt that a native speaker can perfectly understand whether a message is formulated in a natural way or "sounds wrong" whatever their job, but not many people master the ability to explain why that’s the case, and, consequently, to produce or modify a text with all the required attributes.

Think of the last time you met a foreigner who was learning your language and you found yourself correcting them with a “this expression can’t be used this way, although I’m not sure why...”. In the translation industry, we spend years studying and practising the way to solve these linguistic challenges in the most effective way. These are aspects that go unnoticed if the job is done well, but which generate mistrust if not mockery on the part of the user if we do make a mistake.

In conclusion, if you want to localise a software or web product, you’ll certainly benefit from taking the points we have mentioned in this article and doing your best to adapt them to the market you are interested in.

Though, if you want the user to have a truly native experience, and if your budget allows it, you can’t do without a native speaker who’s a professional in the sector. Or, if you don’t know how to find one, turn to an agency which can take care of the project for you, thanks to its network of collaborators spread all over the world.

If you know of other examples or study cases, don’t forget to share them in the comments. By answering your questions, we will also be able to help other professionals who are trying their hand at localisation.