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What are the uses of に and とは in this sentence?

俺のような学生生活夢も持たない人間とはまったく違う人種。

I know this sentence says something along the lines of 'Those people are like a completely different race than someone who has a dreamless school life like me'. What I don't understand is the use of に on the 学生生活 and also the とは but I think that it might be a shortening of というは?

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In this context, the 「~~に」 describes what the object of an action is -- "towards", "for", "regarding", etc. The action here is to have dreams. This 「に」 has the same meaning as 「~~に[対]{たい}して」.

The 「~~とは」 means "from/than ~~" and is often following by a word like 「[違]{ちが}う」, 「[異]{こと}なる」, etc. to express "A is different from/than B." 「とは」 is an emphatic version of a plain 「と」 as in 「AはBと違う」.  「は」 is often combined with another particle to express emphais as in 「には」、「では」, etc. This 「と」 has nothing to do with 「というのは」.

Your translation is actually very good.

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  • Besides ~~とは違う another common form I encountered is ~とは裏腹に which appears to mean "contrary to..." Commented Oct 5, 2022 at 2:44

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