How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
A special danger area in Pnin's case was the English language. Except for such not very helpful odds and ends as "the rest is silence/' "nevermore," "weekend," "who's who," and a few ordinary words like "eat," "street," "fountain pen," "gangster," "Charleston," "marginal utility," he had had no English at all at the time he left France for the States. Stubbornly he sat down to the task of learning the language of Fenimore Cooper, Edgar Poe, Edison, and thirty-one Presidents. In 1941, at the end of one year of study, he was proficient enough to use glibly terms like "wishful thinking" and "okey-dokey." By 1942 he was able to interrupt his narration with the phrase, "To make a long story short." By the time Truman entered his second term, Pnin could handle practically any topic; but otherwise progress seemed to have stopped despite all his efforts, and by 1950 his English was still full of flaws. (1.10.1)
Throughout the novel Pnin's lack of English skills is mentioned a bunch of times, but this is the first time we hear it described. Notice that Pnin seems to be a very quick learner at the beginning of his English study, and then everything just grinds to a halt in 1950. What you think is going on there?
Quote #2
The procedure was somewhat complicated. Professor Pnin laboriously translated his own Russian verbal flow, teeming with idiomatic proverbs, into patchy English. This was revised by young Miller. Then Dr. Hagen's secretary, a Miss Eisenbohr, typed it out. Then Pnin deleted the passages he could not understand. Then he read it to his weekly audience. (1.10.2)
Whoa. Pnin's lectures go through six transformations before they even get to be read to an audience! That's right—his verbal transgressions are so serious they have to go through multiple mutations in English before they can be spewed out again for an audience. What does this tell you about Pnin's grasp on English, and particularly his ability to communicate with others?
Quote #3
"Say, I was there as a child exactly the same year," said pleased Joan. "My father went to Turkey on a government mission and took us along. We might have met! I remember the word for water. And there was a rose garden—" "Water in Turkish is 'su,'" said Pnin, a linguist by necessity, and went on with his fascinating past: Completed university education in Prague. (2.2.2)
Oh! So close! Even when Pnin has the legit opportunity to connect with another person, language gets in the way. Here, Joan is sharing something that they have in common, but Pnin is too focused on the Turkish word for water to even notice.