很多時由於文化及文字上的差異，一些外國作品是無法順暢地改譯成中文，就算用心逐字去仔細翻譯，也會完全失去原來的意味。下列一則笑話，就會出現如此的困境：

One Sunday morning, The Bear family was staying home and having breakfast together. While the mother bear was feeding the baby and father bear was reading newspaper, all in a sudden, someone came in, sat at the table and helped himself to the food. Then he pulled out a gun and shot around and made for the door.

In a while, the father bear had recovered from the shock and asked,"Who on earth （注一）is this guy?" The mother bear didn't say a word, she just walked up to the bookshelf and took out a book, opened it and leafed through a few pages, " Ah...ha, here it is! He must be a Panda bear." "Wait a minute, how come you are so sure that he is a Panda bear?" The father bear said. The mother bear answered, "It says here on the book. Panda bear--he eats shoots and leaves."（注二）

注一：這裡該作 "Who the Hell..." 但一般稍有教養的父母都不會在孩子前說粗話，遂引用委婉語把『地獄』改為『人間』。

注二：熊媽媽把名詞『竹笋』『竹葉』當作動詞『射擊』及『離去』看，因而產生如此的美麗誤會，錯把亡命之徒當成可愛的熊貓。