The Korean Room thought experiment
A thought experiment proposed by William Rapaport that imagines a Korean professor who is widely recognised as an expert on Shakespeare, even though he reads and writes only in Korean (see detailed text for full explanation).
Suppose there is a Korean professor who is widely recognised as an expert on Shakespeare, even though he reads and writes only in Korean. He read Shakespeare in translation, and the papers he writes are translated into English. Even though he doesn't understand English, he does understand Shakespeare.
In the same way, even though the man in the Chinese room does not understand the squiggles and squoggles, he may understand Chinese.
William Rapaport, 1988.