In the tourist areas it is common for people to speak fluent English (as well as several other target languages) and historically many Cypriots traded and studied in the UK and there was a generally bilingual ability amongst the population. Additionally the population upheavals and intercommunal violence of the 60s and 70s saw many families and refugees setting up communities in countries where English is widely spoken such as the US, Canada, South Africa, UK and Australia. Many of the Cypriot Diaspora have since returned to Cyprus bringing their language ability with them - but by far the biggest influence was education with many Cypriots attending English medium Universities in the US and UK as there was no domestic University sector. That is now changing - the home University education sector is now growing massively (having been established in 1993) with several Universities now drawing native Cypriots who now largely study in Greek. The standards and extent of spoken English is therefore slowly dropping rather than rising. As Veronica has pointed out - for everyday living there is not a problem, but during disputes (e.g. common traffic accidents, other negotiations, visits to embassies and official bodies, sometimes banks etc) suddenly the english ability dries up and an interpreter is needed. The language barrier can be very real and used against you. I certainly get treated differently out and about if I am with my wife (who is Cypriot) that when I am on my own or with members from the UK side of the family. When I first started coming to Cyprus 10 years ago almost all our Cypriot friends spoke English (as did the teenage part of the family). Today I'd guestimate that about 25% of our friends speak little or no english and the current teenage part of the family have very weak or no english at all.