[For Seniors] Challenging but Exciting! Kanji Quiz
In this article, we introduce kanji quizzes designed for older adults!
These quizzes are often used as activities at day service centers, and this time we’ve gathered ones that focus on kanji.
With people using mobile phones more often and being able to convert text so easily, many can read kanji but find writing them difficult, don’t you think?
It’s great to let each person think carefully on their own, and it’s also fun to solve the questions everyone’s unsure about by chatting and consulting together.
Kanji quizzes are a win-win—they train the brain and help with studying—so be sure to give them a try!
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[For Seniors] Difficult but Exciting! Kanji Quiz (1–10)
Name of the flower

Many people probably didn’t pay much attention to seasonal flowers when they were younger, but as they get older, they become interested—or find they’ve learned to recognize them without even realizing it.
Here’s a kanji quiz about flower names.
Flower names often use hard-to-read kanji, and there are many that you can read but can’t write in kanji, right? The video only covers the readings, but it could be fun to try writing each one on drawing paper, too.
Characters like “薔薇” (rose) and “菖蒲” (iris) are tricky to write smoothly, but they can be enjoyed like a puzzle.
Fish name

The fish name quiz is appealing because it hits that sweet spot of seeming solvable yet tricky.
Most kanji that represent fish names use the fish radical.
So you only need to figure out the right-hand side—but surprisingly, it’s hard to recall.
It’s also recommended to use a format where you look at the kanji and answer with the reading.
Many people have tried this with the patterns on teacups at sushi restaurants.
For reading quizzes, it gets even more fun if you give hints tailored to the fish in question, like “great as tataki,” and so on.
difficult/obscure kanji

Let’s take on a “difficult kanji quiz” like the ones you see on TV quiz shows! There are many kanji you can read but can’t write, and there are also plenty that you can’t read at all and have no idea about.
If it’s too hard, let’s give hints one or two characters at a time, like the first letter or the last letter.
Hints like “It’s food” are fine, too.
There are many tricky kanji that are actually very simple characters but have surprising readings.
It makes for a perfect brain teaser, doesn’t it?
[For Seniors] Challenging but Lively! Kanji Quiz (11–20)
Dictation Quiz

A quiz where you transcribe words written in katakana into kanji.
Within a time limit, you test how many kanji you can recall and write.
Start with an easy first question and gradually increase the difficulty.
For two-character compounds, you can adjust the scoring by giving 1 point per character.
It can be effective not only to use short phrases but also to have participants transcribe full-sentence prompts.
When explaining the answers, deepen understanding by describing the meanings and origins of the kanji.
It’s a perfect brain-training kanji quiz that engages both thinking and handwriting.
Prefecture Name Quiz

Can you name all the prefectures and write them in kanji? This is a quiz where you guess the prefectures that contain a specific kanji character (〇).
If you’re only given a single character, it might not be easy for anyone to answer right away.
It’s also recommended as brain training for seniors, so how about using it for recreation at home or in day-service facilities? When presenting it to older adults, make the text larger and feel free to provide hints! If one kanji appears in multiple prefectures, have participants guess all of the applicable prefectures.
Difficult-to-read kanji related to spring

As we get older, the changing of the seasons seems to pass more quickly, but that also makes us look forward to seasonal delicacies and traditional seasonal scenes.
これは「季節の行事」に焦点を当てた漢字クイズです。例えば春には、「筍」や「新玉葱」など、春らしさを感じる旬の食材の漢字が出題されます。
If you’re enjoying the quiz as a recreational activity at a day service center, try using questions that match the current season.
It can also be fun to write them on a whiteboard and play together.
Vegetable Kanji Quiz

A vegetable that’s familiar in daily life—one you often hold in your hand or eat.
This is a vegetable name kanji quiz where you write the names of vegetables, which are usually written in hiragana or katakana, in kanji and match them with their readings.
If it’s hard to guess, it’s good to give hints like “It’s a vegetable used in curry,” “It has a delicious crunchy texture,” or “It’s a specialty product of XX Prefecture.” By turning your favorite vegetables—or even the ones you dislike—into a quiz, they might leave a stronger impression on you.



