Michael and Victoria's grandson, Steve, calls his grandmother and grandfather "babci" and "dziadziu" respectively. Steve recalls that many years after his grandparents immigrated to the United States, "They still spoke very little English." Learning a new language anywhere is very difficult, and it makes it hard to communicate with other people. Michael and Victoria even had a communication barrier with their son, Walter (Steve's dad). Steve explains, "My father, who was born and raised in the United States, understood Polish but he never spoke it...His two older sisters, Chestra and Irene, would translate for him." This was very difficult. "His sisters were wonderful and helped him, but there was a lot of sadness, just like every family."

In addition, like many other immigrants, Michael and Victoria were stereotyped. There were a lot of "polack" jokes, which were "Jokes about how 'stupid' Polish people were." Although this is not true, in the US, Polish people (and other people who seemingly didn't fit in) were looked at as lesser than the average American. Even generations later, with its Americanized pronunciation, Steve was made fun of for his last name, "because it was perceived as different."