落ち着く

[Riccardo91]

Dear Japanese forum,

I have a quick question about the following sentence from a cartoon. A girl buys a Christmas present (a pendant) for a man, and explains him why she chose it:

いつも同じものをつけてるから落ち着くのかと思って
(You always wear an identical one, so I thought I could settle on that.)

Is it ok here to translate 落ち着く as "to settle/decide for that particular present"?

Thank you so much!

 

[Joschl]

My interpretation of the verb "落ち着く" here is "to become composed / calm" or something.
「いつも同じものをつけてるから(、それを付けていると、[A(= the man wearing the pendant)の]気持ちが)落ち着くのかと思って」

 

[SoLaTiDoberman]

"いつも同じものをつけてるから落ち着くのかと思って"
means
"I was thinking that the reason why you always wore the same pendant was probably it made you feel relaxed, calm down, or feel easy.

Therefore, your explanation of the context and background doesn't make much sense without the latter half, which starts with "however."
For example:
"いつも同じものをつけてるから落ち着くのかと思って"新しいペンダントをあげるのをこれまでためらってたわ。でも今回思い切ってプレゼントすることしたの。私のあげたのも、気に入ってもらえるかしら・・・
or something like that.

Or we should think about less probable contexts such as:
"いつも同じものをつけてるから落ち着くのかと思って" 今までつけてるのと全く同じものにしたわ。わざと汚して使い込んだ感じも同じにしてあるわ。
Or
"いつも同じものをつけてるから落ち着くのかと思って"質屋を探し回って、あなたの盗まれたペンダントを取り戻してきたのよ。
Or
"いつも同じものをつけてるから落ち着くのかと思って" わざと新しい物をあげるのよ。落ち着かなくなったら、私と落ち着いてね。

I wonder what's going on, actually, in your context.

 

[gengo]

いつも同じものをつけてるから落ち着くのかと思って

It definitely does not mean "to settle on." However, without more context, it's a very strange phrase, in my opinion. In addition to the meanings mentioned above, 落ち着く can also mean 調和して安定する, as in 新しいメガネがどうも落ち着かない (my new glasses don't seem to suit/fit me); or 浮ついた感じのない / 地味な, as in 彼はいつもシックで落ち着いた感じの服装をしている (he is always dressed fashionably but understatedly). So it's possible that she is saying that she thought the present would look good on him. If that is the case, then the 同じ would mean not that the present is the same as the pendant the man already has, but that the man is always wearing the same thing (that is, never wears anything else).

It's hard to know for sure what it meant without a lot more context.

 

[Riccardo91]

Hi, everyone, sorry for the late answer.

It's really difficult to give you more context: there's really nothing the seems to be helpful to my eyes.
Basically, the man is a powerful magician who understands human habits and emotions but can't emphatize with them. The girl is her human disciple. She gets invited out by a friend who needs help to chose a Christmas present for her master, and so she decides to buy a present for her own master too. She doesn't know much of his tastes and interests, so the choice gets really difficult, and finally she settles down on a pendant identical to the one he always wear. She than comes back home and gets scolded for going out without his permission, so she reveals that she wanted to buy him a present, and gives him the pendant saying the topic sentence. He says "thank you" and gives her a present too.
They never talk about the pendant from that point, nor she says anything about why she chose it (she was advised to "buy something that you imagine he would use", so that may be the reason).

He does always wear the same things, so this interpretation for the いつも同じものをつけてる part may work. I also thought the meaning could be "You always wear an identical one, so I thought it relaxes you", but there's no way to know if this is true.

Thank you!

 

[SoLaTiDoberman]

Hi, everyone, sorry for the late answer.

It's really difficult to give you more context: there's really nothing the seems to be helpful to my eyes.
Basically, the man is a powerful magician who understands human habits and emotions but can't emphatize with them.The girl is her human disciple. She gets invited out by a friend who needs help to chose a Christmas present for her master, and so she decides to buy a present for her own master too. She doesn't know much of his tastes and interests, so the choice gets really difficult, and finally she settles down on a pendant identical to the one he always wear. She than comes back home and gets scolded for going out without his permission, so she reveals that she wanted to buy him a present, and gives him the pendant saying the topic sentence. He says "thank you" and gives her a present too.
They never talk about the pendant from that point, nor she says anything about why she chose it (she was advised to "buy something that you imagine he would use", so that may be the reason).

He does always wear the same things, so this interpretation for the いつも同じものをつけてる part may work. I also thought the meaning could be "You always wear an identical one, so I thought it relaxes you", but there's no way to know if this is true.

Thank you!

Harry Houdini was a human magician, but I think a powerful magician here means a powerful sorcerer/male witch, like Harry Potter.
If you're talking about a fiction, it would be a very important context and background because anything would be possible in a fictitious story.