Proper spelling - is it that important?

Geez, I hate to say it, but I still go with Pinyin. It really does feel like one is learning TWO langauges with Chinese, the Oral portion (complete with Pinyin to aid in Pronunciation) and the Characters.

Of course, there are even exceptions to both the characters and verbal communication that don't for both of them (i.e. certain slang or such is used only when writing).

I was told that Radicals would help you deduce the meaning. I...didn't have much luck with that. Then again, I was told that and was taught to look at the Radicals to get the meaning which can be pretty daunting for a first-time Chinese language learner. I found that instead learning commonly used words (i.e. bathroom, man, woman, food on a menu, etc) is more helpful with PERHAPS (never got this far) learning the Charactes and guessing meanings via radicals afterwards.

Jam it back in, in the dark.