Living in a stone den is a poet-scholar named Shi, addicted to pork. Having lost his official post, he vowed to eat 10 lions. The lions seemed inclined to interfere. Mr. Shi set up an office, and used his master's influence to dispatch a messenger named Shi to fetch lion corpses, awaiting his time to eat. Only upon eating did he begin to understand the ways of the world. Mr. Shi sent his envoy to the market to observe another man named Shi. Try to explain this matter.

...or in Chinese:

Shíshì shī shì shǐ shì, shì shǐ, shī shì, shì shí shí shī. Shī sì shì shī. Shǐ shì shè sì, shì shī shì, shǐ shī shì shí shī shī, shì shí shí, shǐ shí shìshì. Shǐ shǐ shì shì shì shì, shì shī shì. Shì shì shì shì.
Wouldn't be able to tell from the characters though:
石室詩士史氏,嗜豕,失仕,誓食十獅。獅似嗜虱。史氏設寺,恃師勢,使施氏拾獅屍,俟食時,始識世事。史使侍逝適市,視施氏。試釋是事。

Swedish is like this too, with words like varan (the ware) and varan (type of lizard) but you can rarely tell which pitch curve is used from spelling and just have to guess. Same with whether to use hard or soft vowels.
Kokoo koko kokko kokoon

Image: Sami Keinänen / Flickr Kokoo koko kokko kokoon. Koko kokkoko kokoon? Koko kokko kokoon. Here’s a non-scientific explanation of […]