Trade Nation

MANILA, Philippines - Long before we started swiping our Visas and MasterCards, our ancestors were already trading their homegrown cotton and abaca for their neighbors’ exotic porcelain and silk. These days, Trade School Manila is bringing back the barter system for something much more valuable.

Patterned after Trade School in New York, Trade School Manila is a learning community that uses the barter system to facilitate the exchange of ideas between avid learners and enthusiastic teachers. Anyone whose submission passes Trade School Manila’s standards can volunteer to teach a class on something they are experts on or passionate about, such as playing the ukulele or making smart investments, while students can sign up online for any class they are interested in.

Instead of paying the teacher with money like in other seminars, students just have to bring anything on the teacher’s list of barter items, objects (or even services) he or she would like to receive for teaching the class. “The students and teachers are thrilled by the barter system. It is like they feel a sense of liberty over the fact that the money factor has been taken out of the equation,” explains organizer Ethel Katrina Francisco.

Although finding suitable venues and making ends meet with a tight budget always pose a challenge, Francisco finds that working in an organization that facilitates the collaboration of likeminded individuals to be very rewarding. Although she and the rest of Trade School Manila’s founders (who are also her high school friends) work in varying fields, they are united in their desire to share what they know and learn from those who are willing to teach.

“I liked the class so much,” shares Makeup 101 participant Dane Ancheta. “Trade School Manila’s amazing because there is a wide array of classes offered to anyone who’s interested to learn.” While other makeup classes might have cost her a thousand pesos or so, Dane learned how to accentuate her features for a mere two headbands.

Typical barter requests include books and gift certificates while others are less common, such as Mommy Patch Body Dusting Powder in Dark Vanilla or even a hundred high fives. Some classes are equally rare, like Filipino Sign Language, Kickstarting Your Ecofriendly Lifestyle and Solo Female Travelers Unite! You never know who might be your teacher  — a recent class entitled On Writing Your First Screenplay and Making Your First Film was taught by Antoinette Jadaone, writer and director of the critically acclaimed Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay and Dan Villegas, director of the award-winning 2010 Cinemalaya entry Mayohan.

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Trade School Manila’s classes are held at the Chemworld Training Room or Lola’s Best Restaurant at 1/F Executive Building, Jupiter Street corner Makati Avenue, Makati City or at My EC Place at 1 North Sikap Street, Mandaluyong City. (The venue varies depending on the class.) Classes are held on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at varying times. Check www.tradeschool.coop for more details.