configuration: how to make emacs re-parse code more quickly

[Michael McFarland]

     Whenever I'm writing code (perl,python,c++, etc) in emacs (graphical) 
under emacs 21.2.1 under redhat/KDE, if I type a double-quote character and 
don't type another quote within 3-4 seconds, all code beneath that quote 
becomes colored as if it were part of a string.  What is annoying is this has 
happened and I type the closing quote, it takes another 3-4 seconds before my 
code goes back to normal.  Is there any way to configure emacs to detect that 
closing quote more quickly?  Or else, is there anything I can bind a key to 
that will manually re-parse the code and determine that the string is 
terminated?

    - Michael