Making changes to Wordpress plugins

Like most people, I have several WP plugins that either need improving (need more features), or have plugin devs who abandon their projects .

As somebody who doesn't code, is it worth bunging a project on Odesk or pull me socks up & go it alone?

If you think of long term it's better you do it yourself. It also helps you to understand different plugins and gives you a chance to develop a new plugin ideas by merging one or more existing plugins.

Thanks. I take it the main lingo to learn is: php, mysql, and possibly js? (I know enough html/css to get around ok).

If you decide to get into WP plugin development, please please please forget about MySQL !
Learn about the WP API (from the WP codex) instead to hook your functions to WP and the database properly.

Almost every mysql calls made from WP plugins are (very) bad practices and could be avoided and replaced by built-in WP functions.

So let me rewrite your previous sentence :

"the main lingo to learn is: php, WordPress API, and possibly js/jQuery"

Thank you for the pointers.

Now off to find an idiot's guide on php!