ni hao! actually its much more easier and useful for u expats to learn pinyin rather than character. i suggest u could learn pin yin and oral mandarin only,it will help u a lot during the communication in china.and then ,if yr mandarin is fluent enough,u can consider to learn chinese characters. its only my personal suggestion,cuz i used to be the chinese tutor for several expats,and i usually tought them pin yin and oral manadarin first .hope can help u !

Hello!I think this question you should ask yourself ,you can compare how you learn english,and than you can know how you should learn chinese.Because this way is a very suitable way for you.For example,pinyin like phonetic symbol,and characters like english words.How you learn the english,and you can use it to learn chinese too.

i think you should listen more first,just like babies learn speaking,they don't know how to write it ,but they can understand what you are saying,so listening more is most important if you were not learn it for exam~~~~^_^

Absolutely necessary to learn both pinyin and characters if you are serious. Take a look at these two pairs: 拔拨,谁准 Without pinyin you would not be able to easily understand the difference Consider: di4yu4 Am I talking about hell or a region?

If you want to learn Mandarin, the answer is yes.