too tired.

🔹 1. 还是 (háishì)

Used in: questions

Means: "or" (choice)

你喜欢茶还是咖啡？ Do you like tea or coffee?

Important: This form requires a question. Never use it in statements.

🔹 2. 或者 (huòzhě)

Used in: statements

Means: "or" (options, not a choice prompt)

我们可以坐车或者走路。 We can take a car or walk.

🔹 3. 要么 (yàome)

Used in: more emphatic “either… or…”

Often used for strong alternatives, especially in speech.

要么你来，要么我去。 Either you come, or I go.

她要么迟到，要么缺席。 She’s either late or absent.

This one highlights a firm choice—often used when there are only two clear options.

🔹 4. 或是 (huòshì)

Formal/literary version of 或者

Used mostly in writing or speeches

成功来自于努力或是运气。 Success comes from hard work or luck.

Not commonly used in casual speech.

🔹 5. 还是说 (háishì shuō)

Means something like: “Or are you saying…?”

Appears in more rhetorical or speculative questions.

他是忘了，还是说他根本没看到？ Did he forget, or are you saying he never saw it at all?

🔹 6. 抑或 (yìhuò)

Extremely formal or literary

Translates as “or,” “or else,” “alternatively”

他是真心的，抑或只是在演戏？ Is he sincere, or is he just acting?

Mostly found in classical Chinese, legal writing, or high-formality prose.

还是 (háishì) and 或者 (huòzhě) will cover 90% of your “or” needs.

要么 (yàome) is your next most useful for real-life speech.

What I have pieced together from listening so far is:

oh 哦/ai 唉/ai-yao 哎哟/a-ya 哎呀/en 嗯/wa 哇/ya 呀 - i suspect these because I have seen them written in hanzi as actual filler words online.

jiu - just saying jiu-jiu or jiushi... jiushi

shouxian - or any time word/position word, repeating the time word a few times to consider what to say. xianzai... xianzai, wo xiao shihou (when i was little)... xiao shihou

verbs - repeating the verb, if rewording or trying to think of what to say next. Like "wo hui...wo hui..."

I suspect any word just repeated, a time word (mingtian...mingtian...), a verb (wo hui... wo hui), an adjective (xiaode... xiaode), would probably be a fine way to 'fill' space until the next thing you want to say actually comes out.

name - i think this is only really repeated if the person has a reason for saying "like that"

zheyang - same thing as name, only really repeated if they already were saying "like this/this way"

uh - I have heard a girl just say "uh" like in English, on Chinese Podcast with Shenglan

I'm curious about this because it's much easier to sound natural, if you use a normal 'filler' word other people use in the language, rather than English ones. Like in Japanese, 'eto' is the go to filler word, along with 'ano'... so if you say those when you're thinking about how to word something, it sounds much more natural than 'um/uh.'

nage - 那个 that one

All available on the Internet Archive.

Buddhism

Old Path White Clouds by Thich Nhat Hahn

Stepping into Freedom: An Introduction to Buddhist Monastic Training by Thich Nhat Hahn

The Other Shore: A New Translation of the Heart Sutra by Thich Nhat Hahn

Elaborations on emptiness : uses of the Heart Sūtra by Donald Lopez

Classics of Buddhism and Zen : the collected translations of Thomas Cleary

Youtube channel with teachings I love: Longchenpa, Zen/Chan Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism.

Daoism

The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff

Tao Te Ching translated by Jonathan Star

What is Tao? by Alan Watts

The Zhuangzi

A video from a channel I really like

Tang Dynasty

China's Golden Age: Everyday life in the Tang Dynasty by Charles Benn

Women of the Tang Dynasty by May Holdsworth

Ming Dynasty

The Glory and Fall of the Ming Dynasty by Albert Chan

A Tale of Two Melons: Emperor and Subject in Ming China by Sarah Scheewind

The Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty by Shih Shan Henry Tsai

A Brief History of Chinese Fition by Lu Hsun

Like, does anyone have a strategy?

The first "method" is called intensive reading(/insert other immersion type here) and the basic idea is to fully understand the entire text. With this method, you'll be looking up every single word and grammar construct that you don't understand. I've seen lots of people use this as their main method of learning languages and get great results from it! If you find that textbook study just isn't doing the job for you, you might want to try this.

The other method is extensive reading, where you're reading as much as possible and only trying to get the main gist of things. This is my preferred method of immersion, especially now that I'm more comfortable using my target language (in one language at least). This is typically supplemental to textbooks/other methods of study, and tends to work best (for language learning/studying purposes) with something that's just slightly above your level. However, sometimes reading in your target language is just fun, and that's still time spent with your language, which is a huge win!

As for finding something to read, that's where personal preference comes in the most. As a Japanese learner, I've never had issues finding things written in my target language to immerse in. If you're learning something like Irish, it might be a bit harder to find things written in your target language. I personally prefer to consume media in their original languages across the board (to the logical extent), but others prefer translated materials.

As for finding something suitable to someone just starting out with reading in their target language, I personally find comics to be a great starting point (again- Japanese learner). They have less words per page, it's mostly if not exclusively dialogue, and you'll get through it a lot faster than a page of pure text, which is a great morale booster at the beginning. Some people also like to start with children's books, whether that's picture books or early reader chapter books is up to the individual. Graded readers are also a popular option, but keep in mind that these are created specifically for language learners.

I personally started with a story that I was familiar with but had never actually read before (the manga of an anime I had seen). This way I knew that I would enjoy the story and I knew the plot in case I got lost, but there was also things in there that I hadn't come across before and therefore would have to figure out myself. I've seen lots of people read books that they've read multiple times in their native language as well. Although the first manga I read in Japanese was a story that I knew well, my first novel was one that was completely new to me. At this point, I almost exclusively read things I'm completely unfamiliar with.

in my experience almost no one has sufficient time and resources to really commit to either. focusing on the input being comprehensive is much more productive for most learners.

I also think the perceived difficulty of the text is less important than one's ability to engage with it.

if you're interested in a text, find it annoying, disagree with it, feel curious what happens next = you'll remember more of its grammar/vocabulary/etc

emotional engagement is an incredibly powerful tool for learning.

so what follows is: go for content you're actually into, and not content you'd only be reading for target language's sake. this may be rereading your fav middle grade series, or getting into manga, or something else entirely. fanfiction is also great.

it's entirely up to you.

there is of course a minimum of understanding you'll need - some people are comfortable looking up 80% of phrases on each page, but chances are your concentration is so null doing that you'll never read enough to recall all the stuff you spend time looking up.

The holidays are almost here, so here's some useful vocab in Chinese! Even though Christmas isn't really a big celebration in China, it's still useful to know some vocab. Merry Christmas in advance!

圣诞节快乐 (shèng dàn jié kuài lè) - Merry Christmas!

圣诞节 (shèng dàn jié) - Christmas

圣诞节前夕 (shèngdàn jié qiánxī) - Christmas Eve

新年 (xīn nián) - New Year

新年快乐 (xīn nián kuài lè) - Happy New Year!

春节 (chūn jié) - Spring Festival (Lunar New Year)

元旦 (yuán dàn) - New Year's Day

除夕 (chú xī) - Lunar New Year's Eve

圣诞老人 (shèng dàn lǎo rén) - Santa Claus

圣诞树 (shèng dàn shù) - Christmas tree

圣诞礼物 (shèng dàn lǐ wù) - Christmas gift

圣诞卡 (shèng dàn kǎ) - Christmas card

圣诞袜 (shèng dàn wà) - Christmas stocking

圣诞装饰 (shèng dàn zhuāng shì) - Christmas decorations

彩灯 (cǎi dēng) - Christmas lights

星星 (xīng xīng) - Star

铃铛 (líng dāng) - Bell

圣诞花环 ((shèng dàn huā huán) - Wreath

彩带 (cǎi dài) - Ribbon

圣诞球 (shèng dàn qiú) - Christmas ball ornament thing

雪花 (xuě huā) - Snowflake (The literal meaning is snow flower which I think is just so pretty)

蜡烛 (là zhú) - Candle

圣诞派对 (shèng dàn pài duì) - Christmas party

圣诞市场 (shèng dàn shì chǎng) - Christmas market

拐杖糖 (guǎi zhàng táng) - Candy cane

姜饼 (jiāng bǐng) - Gingerbread

姜饼人 (jiāng bǐng rén) - Gingerbread man

热巧克力 (rè qiǎo kè lì) - Hot chocolate

圣诞火鸡 (shèng dàn huǒ jī) - Christmas turkey

蛋酒 (dàn jiǔ) - Eggnog

圣诞布丁 (shèng dàn bù dīng) - Christmas pudding

圣诞水果蛋糕 (shèng dàn shuǐ guǒ dàn gāo) - Fruitcake

圣诞饼干 (shèng dàn bǐng gān) - Christmas cookies 驯鹿 (xùn lù) - Reindeer

the last time I reblogged this post right before I got a great job, in a permanent work-from-home position, with benefits, retirement, and a salary literally 3x what I was making before, doing something I really like. 

So you know.