93015
Context: A group of people is talking about their favorite home-made food.
Someone comes out and says this:

> 食べてる時間って暇じゃない？

After that everyone looks very surprised by the question. We know this person
is not used to eating at home, eats only meals from the コンビニ and has been
neglected by their family. I have an idea that it might mean something along
the lines of "Do you guys have time to eat?" or "Isn't everyone busy (at your
houses) at the time of lunch" or even "You guys eat at home?". But I'm
probably wrong and a bit confused.
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2022-01-19T19:42:07.937
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2022-01-20T04:04:44.337
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meaning
What does 食べてる時間って暇じゃない？mean?
> 食べてる時間って暇じゃない？

Let's take this utterance apart. This って functions _like_ a topic marker. See
this discussion

[Difference between って and は as topic
marker](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/15004/30454)

It's put in the form of a question, so 「じゃない？」 means "isn't it?" And the
statement that the じゃない？ seeks confirmation of is 「食べてる時間って暇」 ≈ 「食べてる時間は暇」:
"the time when you eat is free" or "[someone is] free during the time of
eating"

So put together, this utterance means "You are free when you eat, isn't it?"
The implication is: when you eat, it's your free time, and you can watch TV,
talk to your friend on the phone, relax, daydream, listen to the music, etc. I
am using a generic "you" here. The speaker may intend this as a question to
all the listeners, or more likely, saying this as a general observation.

Note: 暇 in Japanese can also imply being bored and personally I think the line
between "bored" and "free" is blurry. That's why when you want to talk to your
boss during work, you should never ask if they are 暇. That would imply you
think they are bored and have nothing important to do.

暇だ！ = I'm bored!

休みだから暇だよ = I'm bored because it's a day off.

With that in mind, also per @aguijonazo's comment, this could also be a
comment about how the time spent eating seems boring or wasteful.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-19T20:21:15.523
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2022-01-19T23:36:39.320
2022-01-19T23:36:39.320
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answer