i NEVER inhale into my lungs cos it's water vapor, and i'd drown, right?
actually, i don't really inhale. i take it into my mouth first - not really unlike when i smoked. the difference between vaping and smoking for me is that after i'd take in cig smoke, i'd chase it into my lungs by inhaling air. i could never just straight lung inhale cig smoke like most ppl do.
with vaping, after holding it in my mouth for a few seconds, i will take a very shallow inhale of air, just until it hits the back of my throat, and maybe a little does get into my lungs, but not much. then i will somewhat slowly exhale thru my nose. yes it sometimes burns on the first few vapes. i chalk that up to the nicotine hitting my nasal membranes. it's kind of like throat hit, but instead nasal hit, i suppose.
my girlfriend is the opposite. she will direct inhale the vape into her lungs. and at first she was ready to give up vaping and go back to analogs cos she wasn't feeling any nicotine at all. i believe that was cos lungs don't do an efficient job at absorbing the nic, and it's the mucus membranes of the mouth and nose that absorb it when vaping. she's been working on trying to hold it in her mouth longer before inhaling, and also exhaling thru her nose. now she does seem to be getting more nic from her vaping.
i've also noticed that on some flavors, when the vapor transitions thru my upper throat from my mouth to my nasal passages, i often get a kick of flavor way back, away from my tongue, which is sometimes very nice.