When I was a kid I learned to speak enough Chinese I could get around the city but I never could get the hang of reading it. In two years I doubt I learned more then 100 or so characters. So yeah I feel ya.

2000 characters gives you a ton of coverage unless you're working with obscure topics (which you'll pick up from context anyway). I would also say that speaking is significantly more important that reading, writing, or listening, and if you focus on that as a first objective (but not the only objective of course), everything else will come pretty naturally.