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Hi All !

Is it easy to communicate on the
Pacific Islands in English ?

What ist your experience ?

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Orca

Hi Orca !

I travelled all over in the Pacific.
My experience is that it is not easy to communicate in English
in the villages.
However lots of Islanders worked in New Zealand, Australia
and the United States.

So You should be able to find people to communicate in English
Language !

See Ya
Moa

In the Cook Islands English is spoken by almost everybody, but with a little bit of an accent and sometimes limited vocabulary, but pretty well understood as it has strong ties with New Zealand. The same goes for Niue!
Samoa is a bit different because it consists out of a couple of different islands.
In American Samoa, english is certainly spoken by almost everybody as the locals are US citizens. In Western Samoa, the island of Savaii is somehow a bit behind and it can be a bit difficult to get along with english, but on Upulu, the main island, there are a lot of Samoans who have lived in New Zealand at least for some time and understand basic english, in the tourist areas and hotels its easy to communicate.
Tonga has a similar level of english, still somehow more reluctant to comunicate, as the Tongans are quiet people and through the feudal system of the royalty education is very basic. Bear in mind also that Tonga has never been colonised, unlike the other island nations.
In Fiji, English is widely understood and business language as well.
Of course, in tourist areas and cities like Suva and Nadi, it's the language No.1.
French Polynesia doesn't want to admit that some people actually have a good grasp of english, they just want to listen what you say! With some basic french and english you should be ok there, same goes for New Caledonia.
In the Solomons, english is understood by most people to a degree too, as they speak a kind of pidgin english there as well as some other different languages and dialects.
In Vanuatu, the locals speak "Bislama", which is the pidgin english of the New Hebrides, but some french and english is understood by most locals in the capital Port Vila.

As a matter of fact, without english one would have great difficulty to get along anywhere in the Pacific! It's the lingo!
If you know some french, even better!