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What is a premade deck?

A premade deck is a compilation of flashcards put together by somebody else and shared on the Internet.

How can I use a premade deck to get started as a beginner?

There are certain premade decks that are designed to teach you the most common basic words and grammar of a language starting from zero, via sentence cards, so you could use one of these if one is available for your language.

We have two basic requirements for using a premade deck to get started:

  1. It should only teach via sentences.
  2. It should be designed for people who have zero prior experience with a language.

There are also decks that are not for beginners, but you should never use these. The information will never really stick.

Why should I avoid this approach of using a premade deck to get started?

The first reason is that it's hard to judge which premade decks are good if you're a beginner.

The other reason is that it seems there are hardly any decks that fulfill our two basic requirements, as stated earlier: (1) it should only teach via sentences, and (2) it should be designed for people who have zero prior experience with a language. I realized this because I've also dug into premade decks for other languages for friends interested in this approach (and, admittedly, out of personal curiosity).

What if I want to follow this approach anyway?

If you're learning Korean, I can personally recommend Evita's Grammar deck (do not use his Vocabulary deck - only study sentences). It isn't perfect but it's like 95% fine.

If you're learning Japanese, I have heard good things about this deck based on Tae Kim's guide.