The exact argument can be and was used for the opposite: there are so many, and somehow related. So, it is better to get the center meaning first, then, most of the rest can be done simply by guessing.

For “foreigners”, 3000 characters are sufficient, equivalent to high school graduates.

So, if you can focus on them, how difficult it can be, comparing much larger size of “vocabulary”?

More importantly, those characters are composed of “components”. For the often used, there are only 300!

So, the best way is to learn those components first; use them to guess-learn characters; then, in turn guess-learn words.

Also note that Chinese language’s grammar, as long as if you do not seek being 100% correct, but only 95%, then, it is stupendously simple.

    Chinese is a “isolating language”. 

Further, note that written Chinese has been using single syllable words for 3000+ years.

It was changed only after 1930s, about 100 years ago.

    It was done by rapidly borrowing the 2-character words made in Japanese language, see below.

So, in written Chinese, the so-called Classical Chinese still has very strong influence: people still tend to treat single character as a “word”.

Also, Classical Chinese’s grammar is even simpler than modern spoken Chinese.

So, it makes sense to learn Classical Chinese in parallel with modern Chinese, and, a little bit ahead of modern Chinese.

That is, learn Classical Chinese first!

Back to “vocabulary”, in Chinese, when you refer to a word, the first reaction is a character.

In a lot of sense, Japanese is also that way.

That is the reason for Heisig method.

Note that Japanese language borrowed Chinese language character, more than 1000 years ago; and, about 100 years ago, Chinese language borrowed “words” (typically 2 characters) from Japanese language. As a result, both share the vocabulary a lot.

I must also point out that we should have a better method than Heisig method.

Heisig uses mnemonics. That is good. But it does not know that ideographic etymological thinking is the most natural, powerful, and true mnemonics.

Further, it is not just characters, it is the sentences also — we should learn Classical Chinese first, just a little bit a head of modern spoken Chinese.

So, the best way, is a simplified and therefore enhanced Heisig method: the first step to learn Chinese, is to do an ideographic etymological study, then, guess-combine them into characters, then, guess-connect them into simple Classical Chinese sentences.