"I am really bored."
Translation:わたしはとてもひまです。
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Why does ひま mean bored here? I learnt ひま as meaning free time/nothing to do/holiday and 退屈 for bored. I've never heard 暇 used to mean having free time as a negative and therefore bored.
Because inactivity isn't regarded as a positive in Japan. Thus ひま is used with the implication of too much free time (i.e. being bored).「わたしはとてもひまです」 is like saying "I have absolutely nothing to do".
退屈 is "boring" in the sense of "tedious/dull/uninteresting" and used to describe something/someone, rather than your own state of mind.
A native Japanese speaker confirmed for me that this means bored as well as free time.
I understand how it means "bored", and I don't think it's wrong to define "hima" as "bored" with the appropriate context, but I think translating "bored" as "hima" gives beginning learners the wrong impression of the word. Being "hima" is not always negative like "bored" is.
852
i might be misremembering this but i recently noticed ひま spoken to mean 'bored' in an episode of Terrace House (by an 18 year old native Japanese speaker). it might be a more recent usage?
