Learning Chinese characters

I've started to make a small effort to learn at least some Chinese characters.  My hope is to have a few hundred that I can recognize by the time I leave China.  It won't be easy as they easily get quite complicated and confusing.  There are a few different methods out there, mostly in the form of books, that are used to teach foreigners.  They usually involve some sort of picture or rhyme to help remember the character itself, the Chinese pronunciation AND the English meaning.  

I have a book on my desk at work that does exactly that and a few people from the office have noticed it.  I expected to get some encouraging feedback...'that's cool dave!' 'Or, good luck, let us know if you need help.'  Most responses, however, have been a polite 'Dave, it's too hard. Maybe you shouldn't spend much time on that.'  

One slightly more encouraging girl asked....

- 'Do you know the Japanese characters?'   

- 'No'

- 'Oh, it would be much easier to learn the Chinese ones if you already knew Japanese' 

- 'Ok, thanks. I'll get right on that'