[HansTWN]

Actually, in Mandarin the tones are not that much of a problem, since people will still understand what you mean as long as you speak in whole sentences, even if you get it wrong sometimes. Knowing the written language helps, of course, since you could explain which character it is supposed to be.

LDBoblo's suggestion of reading on a computer and using DrEye (have seen people use it at work many years ago) is very good. You just hover over a word with your mouse and translation and pronunciation appear. Since that little program is from Taiwan, I don't know if it works with Simplified, though. And the Romanization may not have been PinYin. But I am sure the Chinese have developed similar programs.

I was suggesting the use of a dictionary since looking up characters by stroke order really is the best learning experience. Slow, of course.

By the way, there are much faster entry methods than handwriting for phones these days. Both on the Iphone and WM, using PinYin you only have to type in the starting letters of each word in a word combination. And the software learns which words you use most often and rearranges the order over time (not on the Iphone, I think). I have yet to meet a native Chinese speaker who can write faster on his phone than I do on mine.