Well, different people have different learning targets, some might don't want to learn to write characters, while some do want to learn. And if you don't learn to write the characters, your reaction speed on reading Chinese books or articles will be slower than those who can write it, then you'll spend more time. and time is life. Writing Chinese characters can even develop your brain, actually.

I think Owen exemplifies one of the differences between Chinese and Western culture - a quick read over the article will emphasize one of the key traits Chinese people believe in - dilligence. 

As you can see, everything in the article emphasizes upon the importance of <em>proficiency</em>. Compare this with polyglots like Benny Lewis, who is an amazing linguist in his own right, but accepts readily the limitations in a conversational-oriented approach. In other words, the fact that people might have different goals, motivations, reasons among other factors for learning Chinese are different didn't really <em>come across</em> the author, I daresay. In the end, it is proficiency that matters, and proficiency is what Owen discusses. 

Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to critique Owen's article. If anything, I agree that these are good tips, and I happen to agree with some of them, like pinyin being a pre-requisite for learning the language, reading Chinese books etc. 

But I do disagree with a few points, and I think this juxtaposes a Chinese and English style of thinking very clearly - Owen recommends reciting articles and jot extracts from texts down from memory. I disagree. Better understand why a particular grammatical construct is used, how it is used, and be able to replicate it in other contexts, than to memorize a long chunk of text and not being able to know how to replicate the structure. 

See it yet? Memorization vs. Flexibility. Rote vs. Objective-oriented learning.

For me and most of my friends who are based in China -- we all swear by Pleco Dictionary.  

http://pleco.com/  - <a href="http://pleco.com">Pleco Dictionary App</a>

This is the best dictionary app in the world, and it has been the real "Rosetta Stone" of Chinese language learning for some time.  

Notably, you can sketch characters by hand, and look them up that way.  Of course, you can also type pinyin or English to look up words.  

It is also great for making quick flashcard lists (just hit [+] on any word you just looked up to add it to your flashcard stack).  You can also use your own custom tone color codes.  

It's amazing.  Everyone learning Chinese should have it.  (And for the record, I have absolutely no tie or business relationship with Pleco.  I just think it is amazing!)

[Begin of part two]

For example:
I'm absolutely tolerant, when foreigners try to speak German, and they make grammar mistakes, like wrong conjugation of the verbs or so. (I would be more baffled, if the foreigner would speak better German, than I, just to be honest! *lol* Or if he/she would begin to correct my own fugitive grammar mistakes in German. *lol*)
No, I find it really sympathetical, when a foreigner make these "mistakes". (It often sounds really cute, I think. ^_^ It does have such a special charme ... it's hard to describe. I really like that.) And each nationality has it's own unique style of these "mistakes". On the other hand, you can learn so much from the native language of that foreigner, especially through these mistakes. Because, they often like to apply their own native grammar into your native language. And that's really interesting, because you get an idea of how their grammar work and you begin to question even your own language about those things.
You become really conscious about your mother tongue. (Especially, when foreigners ask you, why the things are spoken/spelled, as they are. That's totally interesting!)

What I wanted to say, with that example, is:
Languages, with all that grammar/spelling, are a flexible and living thing, which changed (and changes) all the time. (And in your daily routine, you will use phrases/words/slang, which you will never find in any dictionary or book. Teach also such things to your language partner, so that he can survive the daily routine someday.)

So, communicate and appreciate the "mistakes", folks! :-)

At first, it is a good article, Owen! Really, it is! I'm sure, you put much effort in writing it.

But I mostly agree with Dorothy and Baggio here.
The article could be a bit demotivating for people (like me), who are even happy, when they reach a fluently conversational level in Chinese (Mandarin), sometime.
It's like, how I'm even happy with my English level at the moment. Why should I force myself, to reach CEFR Level C1 or C2, when I do not need it? I will be hardly in a situation, where I have/want to debate about highly complicated scientific/philosophical topics, where you need a knowledge, which is higher than that of the average native speaker. ;-)
Even I could hardly debate in my mother tongue about that stuff in a seriously scientific way, because of the missing knowledge (vocabulary and content) at all.

You just don't need it in your daily routine. That is the point. So, why should I stress myself needlessly?
I'm pretty sure, that most of the people around here just want to be conversational fluent at the end. To learn a foreign language, for me it is not a competition. The Languages are meant for communication at first.
And the funny thing is: For simple conversations, you have not to speak perfect. You can have mistakes in the grammar, as long as your partner understand, what you mean. I think, that's a problem, what most people have. They fear the mistakes instead focusing on the communication itself.

[End of part one]