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I was praised by my tutor for the progress I'd made myself thus far, but
somehow the message just seemed to carry a strange negative connotation to me.
Here's the part where I found a tad off:

> 今年二月から勉強して、 **それだけ** の長文を書けるのはすごいことだとおもいます。

This is part of his reply after I reached out to him for an offer to be my
tutor in conversation yesterday. I am fairly certain he wasn't being sarcastic
or anything. There was absolutely no need to.

The reason why I find the message ostensibly negative is that I usually
associate **だけ** with a sense of negative exclusiveness. Therefore, "
**これだけの長文** " just reads like, " _an article only so long in length_ " to me.

Am I being influenced by my understanding of **だけ** , especially how it
usually translates to " _only_ " in English? If not, is there a better way to
rephrase this to avoid any confusion?

For example:

> こんな程度の長文を書けるのはすごい…

Is this somewhat better than using **だけ**?

ご教授をいただければ、ありがたく思います。よろしくお願いいたします。
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question
words particle-だけ
Does だけ necessarily carry a negative connotation?
だけ is not necessarily negative, and this それだけ just means "that much" (or "that
good" in this context).

Here are some related questions where だけ is not used in negative ways:

  * [What's the role of だけの in this sentence?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/39555/5010)
  * [Is 足りるだけ with a negative verb idiomatic?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/57298/5010)
  * [Meaning of それだけ in this sentence](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/15096/5010)
  * [What does それだけかかってしまうんですね in this conversation mean?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/60416/5010)
  * [Meaning of XばXだけY vs. XばXほどY](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/55065/5010)

Contrary to your expectation, こんな程度/この程度 is usually used in negative or
sarcastic remarks. (e.g., この程度の文章ではダメだ)
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answer