Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out. I will try to help with your questions.
The best way to change the translations would be to create a custom translation file. You can read more about this here: https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/how-to-override-plugin-language-files/
Another option would be to create a custom template, and hardcode the wording you want to display. The issue with this is that it wouldn’t be able to be translated to other languages. You can learn about working with custom events templates by visiting this page: https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/themers-guide/
You may be able to add functionality to the search bar with some customization, but this would probably be quite involved. You might check out our Filterbar Plugin which allows you to sort the events using all kind of different metrics. Please note that this only works with the main Events Calendar, and not with calendars inserted into pages with a shortcode.
Hope that helps! Please let me know if you have any additional questions about this.
Thanks,
Sky