I've actually never seen this whole c2 system before. In terms of words, I've heard "I've been to spain with 2000 words in spanish, IT WAS NOT ENOUGH.". How many words are there in the world's most widely spoken languages? . Im not a russian I have no idea which is harder to learn. Id suppose English since it's stupid. I have maybe 700 words of russian... maybe 1000, and thats where I can have crappy little back and forths with people, so... As Tim Doner would tell you, theres no real reason why you CANT leanr all three at once, it's up to you. There is a man who lived in Korea for 20 years, and couldnt have a decent conversation with a native. Being in the country is nice, but not at all a necessity. Google is all you need. Google, time, paper and pencil or whatever you use to keep words in your head, and practice. Whether it be chat rooms, journal writing and correcting, posting your writing in Russian to this site, or downloading a free to play game and setting the region to Russia, interaction with natives is pretty darn important. Supposedly (from that link), 20,000 words is a natives vocab... Then again, I may know the word "deign", doesn't mean I use it.