the combination ways of characters: 1. Pictograms ( create the character by the sharp of object) human-being "人" --------two legs,you see 2.Indicative character( creat a symbol instead of sth up,on, above "上"-----the line in the bottom means the horizontal lines , the the short to express above the horizontal lines , 3.meaning composite----combine two or more characters as a new character , follow "从"--------two men are walk together, in other word,one follows the other 4.phonetic ideographs river"河"---------- “氵”stand of water，可（ke），河（he） 5 mutually defining means the characters with same “basic character component”（like“氵”“亻”“讠。。。。。can explan the meaning mutually 6.phonetic loan 像--like ，similar， 象--image ， now we use them interoperately

as a native chinese, I had to read out the articles on textbook every morning and practice writing everyday in primary school. it's hard to remember the charactors at the beginning. but it became easier when I knew more. You should begin with radicals, which can help you know the innerlink between the parts and the meaning of a charactor.

i think you can start memorize from the chinese character for 1 to 10.then you can memorise single characters such as ri4(sun),ren4(human),jin4(gold).for better memorisation,you can read on how they are evolved(i think search pictograms,chinese characters in google) eg:http://www.living-chinese-symbols.com/how-chinese-characters-are-formed.html

i am a student.我是一個學生。i am a driver.我是一個司機。i like apples. 我喜歡萍果。i like bananas. 我喜歡香蕉。according to need to change the word. i think so. then practice speaking.

not to confuse u further but... there are two types of characters one is simplified and the other traditional. Chinese from Taiwan and Hong Kong use traditional characters and Chinese from Mainland use simplified. for example the word dian 电 電 the first one is simplified and the other is traditional.