Matthew Walsh's EFL ESL website
The Trading Game
Student Impressions
The bankers
(the world marketplace):
I was the banker. We had to be so precise and we refused any products if they weren't perfect. It was our duty. If there was a surplus of the same product, we would lower the price. We felt sorry for the Philippines because they had a hard time producing anything at first. We made the Philippines lower their price. They had no choice but to accept. However, I was surprised when some of the developing countries started mass-producing things near the end of the game. I think they were able to do this because they had a large population.
The developed countries:
We had a high level of technology, but very little natural resources. We had to import resources, so we traded for technology. We lent our technology for a very high price. We took advantage of the developing countries. We would ask for 4 pieces of paper in return for lending the scissors for only 3 minutes. We ended up getting enough resources easily. We made the most expensive products and sold them to the bank.
We thought that in real-life the developed countries would use the resources to produce things that they would sell to other developed countries. In this way, the developing countries would never get a chance to produce, or sell their own things. They would only sell their resources. The difference between the rich and the poor would get greater.
The semi-developed countries:
We had lots of resources so we were able to trade for technology fairly easily. However we didn't have any skill (pencils). At first we tried to make products without the skill but our products weren't high-quality enough to sell on the world marketplace. We failed at becoming a rich country. We thought that education would be a very important thing for a country with a shortage of skilled labor.
The developing countries:
We had almost nothing to start out with and the developed countries wouldn't help us. They were too busy producing things and selling them on the world marketplace. We felt powerless. We had lots of natural resources but they were useless without the skills and technology needed for production.
We sold our resources and borrowed some scissors (technology) for a short time. We made a few things but they weren't good enough to sell on the world marketplace. We had to sell the things we made for a cheap price. After that, we lost our technology and we had nothing to do. Mr. Walsh came and said that we looked lazy because we were doing nothing. I realized then that this game was like reality.
Developed countries need to help developing countries with skill and technology. Otherwise the gap between the rich and the poor will widen and more and more people will be in poverty.
What happens when the natural resources run out? We have to think about the future!
