Learn a character a day with Mandarin Blueprint right here at Shanghaiist! 习- xí- to practice, exercise, review. Apart from being the last name of the current Chinese president, 习 refers to the actual practice or study of something. This is often times how we tell our students the proper way to distinguish 学习 (xué) from 学 by itself. 学 by itself simply means to learn, so you can being “learning Mandarin” in your life…