No it's a bad approach. Taking  shortcuts when learning Chinese will hinder from mastering the language. The only way to become a master is to really dedicate a lot of time, effort and energy into learning the characters at the same time as learning the tones and pronounciation.

How did you learn your first language? Do you have problems with it now?

Best theory seems to be - learn your other languages the same way you learnt your first... but, this time, you have the advantage of knowing concepts... so, don't 'ignore', but don't stress either - let it come naturally.

I'd say no, personally, for these reasons:

1) There are a lot of Chinese characters. I mean just a ton. It'll take you at least a few years to obtain *basic* literacy (it takes the Chinese about six, and its their native tongue)(and that's just the level of literacy expect of a student in the sixth grade; you're all growd up), so you want to get started as soon as possible.

2) It actually will help your command of the spoken language. They make great mnemonics, and Chinese is chock full of compounds that aren't semantically clear when spoken (to me, anyway), but quite obvious when written out. I learn new words all the time, just based on seeing characters I happen to know and guessing the meaning, which I find isn't so easy with the spoken language.

3) They're really neat.

4) Who wants to learn a language and be illiterate?

5) China is a society that puts a lot of value on the written word, moreso than on the spoken word, which is to say, they tend to think of written Chinese as being more the heart and soul of the language. I'm not sure how to explain it more clearly. If you're illiterate, you'll still be seen as not really having any substantial grasp on the language, by the locals.

6) Ignore that first-language claptrap. Children learn their first languages very slowly, and are only subject to age-appropriate demands. You are an adult and in order to speak that language, you don't get a cozy 18 years to reach adult compentency, you don't get to go through all the phases and stages kids are allowed to go through, and you don't have a mommy around to tolerate the kinds of language building behaviours children practice with their caregivers, which would be seen as ridiculous coming from an adult mouth. Large amounts of research has shown adults will learn a language more quickly if they pull up their socks and study.

You only need about 2000-3000 characters to be able to use Chinese well.  Thats what Chinese ppl say not me.  I learnt my chinese at university and we got characters from day one.  

In my opinion you need the characters, theres no point just being able to say a few words. theres no short cut to being good at chinese.  i've been studying for 4 years now and I'm writing a 10000 character dissertation in chinese but I dont consider myself fluent. 

I cant imagine learning chinese without knowing the characters, it doesnt make sense.  you wont be able to read anything so whats the point? road signs, menus, nothing.  you might be able to order your lunch but you wont even know what the place sells if you cant read the menu. Dont take the lazy foreigner aproach and just learn some basic spoken chinese, if you're planning on staying here a while then put some effort it and do it right.  No one who speaks chinese is impressed with a foreigner who can say hello in chinese,  but if you can read chinese then it makes a big difference.