Nine years ago, on 1 March 2008, Independent English Course Bogor started the English course activities with a mission: to help more people master the English language and to be the best English course in Bogor.
When we started, Independent was located in Jl Raya Taman Cimanggu Bogor. Ms Ramadhani Nuryunawati and Ms Irma helped me run this course. Ms Dhani took care of the teaching and learning process. She had only two or three students at first. Meanwhile Ms Irma managed the administrative affairs. She also cleaned the rooms and office. What did I do? I promoted the course programmes and I still taught some private classes. The number of students increased very slowly but more and more people know our existence.
Things were very simple. The building was not big, the rooms were small, and because the course was located beside a busy street, the course activities were always disrupted by the noise coming from the vehicle's exhaust pipes outside. We had a very limited car park and sometimes our clients got confused about where to park their big cars. Inside the building, we did not have many reference books yet. We only had a few chairs, desks and white boards.
Later on, the number of students increased. Sometimes we had more than 100 students. Even we could open a branch office in Kota Jababeka Cikarang (Bournemouth School of British English), another branch in Taman Pagelaran Ciomas and one training centre in cooperation with United Tractors School in Jl Raya Bekasi Jakarta. In 2010 Independent was selected by Dinas Pendidikan Kota Bogor to be the best English course in Bogor and got the third place in the Province's Region I. Ms Cicilia, Ms Siti Wastunnahari, Ms Sri Rejeki, Ms Soraya Latifah, Ms Sekar, Ms Noey, other teachers and staff helped me much at Independent English Course.
However, things have changed since 2013. We had to move from Jl Raya Taman Cimanggu as we could not extend our building rent. We could not find the right location for the course and we were not able to get the course licence from the city. I had to close the course in Taman Pagelaran, Cikarang and Jakarta for several reasons. We could not run regular classes.
Today we celebrate our 9th anniversary. I thank God for everything that has happened. Although Independent cannot run regular classes any more, students can still study with me privately in my house. If I cannot teach them because of my tight time table, I can recommend some other English courses in Bogor or other professional teachers that I know.
I hope I can still help everyone who wants to study English.
Bogor, 1 March 2017
Thomas A. Sutadi
