Court Reporter Kim Spurger
By WORDSMITH STUDIOS
In a way, it was her older sister that enticed Kim Spurger to become a court reporter.
"I saw Anita not having to keep a regular schedule," Kim said. "And I like going different places. They frequently travel and they’re not stuck in the same office day after day."
Then came reality.
"But you always have work to do at home," she said. "You always have something to do. You’re never really caught up.
"It has its good and bad."
Kim began her career in court reporting in 2000, and now she works with her older sister Anita with Spurger Reporting Services.
Court reporting turned out to suit Kim well. Her calm demeanor and cool head have proven to be major assets.
"This can be a very stressful job," Anita Spurger said. "But Kim’s not a stressed person."
"I don’t believe in being stressed," Kim said. "If something’s bothering me, I sit down and think what do I need to do to fix the situation. If there’s nothing in my power to fix it, then I don’t worry about it."
And there have certainly been occasions where a cool head came in handy. Especially when she is the only calm person in the room.
"When I first started, I worked on a divorce," Kim recalled. "They had it at the courthouse because they knew there would be fights. One of the attorneys was yelling at the witnesses and in the other attorney’s face. It got pretty interesting."
Kim, the younger sister of Spurger Reporting Services owner Anita Spurger, is the youngest of four children of an American father and Vietnamese mother. Three of the children, three daughters, were born in the United States. But in an unusual turn, it’s Kim who speaks Vietnamese while her older siblings speak little or none. While Anita and her sister were at school, Kim was kept by her aunt who spoke Vietnamese. She also grew up with cousins who spoke Vietnamese, so she became the family’s bilingual interpreter.
"At home it was all English," Kim explained. "The only person who spoke Vietnamese around the house was my mom, so if there was a secret I didn’t want my sisters and brother to hear I’d talk to her.
"I knew a lot more Vietnamese when I was younger. I’ve forgotten some. I can make basic conversations. There’s five different ways to say one word, so depending on the words used I might know it. I can speak slang, but formal Vietnamese is difficult."
As handy as they have been at home, Kim’s language skills do not had a big impact on her court reporting. In depositions that have translators, reporters listen to the translator, not the deponent.
"I’ve had interpreted depos, but I don’t sit there thinking that I know what they’re saying," Kim said. "If you pay attention to what’s being said, it’s harder to type. You don’t think about what’s being said, your hands are just working."
