First, you have to be interested in learning Chinese, because interest is the best teacher。 You can begin with spoken Chinese first and learn to say some short sentences。
When you learn it, you will feel much accomplished and your interest grows。 Then you can begin to learn Pinyin and Chinese characters, and go into further details in learning Chinese。
Step by step, you will finally grasp this difficult language。 ( I think your idea and method is good, actually it is suitable for learning any language)。
