[harperlee]

To me, having part of the chinese-speaking-ability be in an almighty dictionary always looked like a sleight of hand; surely if you’re talking to the whole system that is the room, the person, and the dictionary, it is the system as a whole that has intelligence and knows how to speak chinese? It takes advantage of our identification with just the person to distract from that.

[HeavenBanned]

Wow. I never thought of it from that light. Honestly, that is a problem. You're smuggling in pre-formed language into the thought experiment with its own rich meaning.