When I stated to interact with this university, it has been a lot of small things with this "wired feeling". They said emails and advertising on their website said these are what we do for our students. When reading them, I just feel wired. But I didn't have a good example to show this. Today I got an article in my email box:
A teenager's take on '18 in isolation'
這篇文章刊登在城市的官方宣傳網站上，引用的圖片裡面提到：學校打電話給每個學生確定在家遠距教學的能夠運作。(They also made phone calls to every student to ensure that everything was going ok in terms of completing work at home.)
This article is from the official website of Adelaide. It said “They (University of Adelaide) did a really good job at transferring all coursework into an online format and offered many options to get help. They send out constant updates on how uni stands in comparison to Coronavirus. They also made phone calls to every student to ensure that everything was going ok in terms of completing work at home. Plus, they have options for every course to converse with coordinators and other students if you’re stuck on assignments and need that extra bit of help. I've only really scratched the surface on how much work Adelaide has done in supporting students.” Daniel Barratt, University of Adelaide student
看到以上這段廣告，我做為讀者的解讀是，學校主動地打電話給每個學生確定大家都能在家上課。但這裡的詮釋方式或許不是這樣。
When I read this ad as an "ordinary reader", I would think this university call every student actively to ask if everything is working at home. But maybe that's not the way how English is used in Adelaide.
而我在這段時間當中沒有接到學校的任何主動打來的電話。有一封email和簡訊提供了一個預約電話訪談的連結，幾個小時之後傳了第二封簡訊過來說，剛剛的連結有點問題，我們正在修復中。
I have a different experience during this period. The university never called me actively to ensure if everything is going well. They did sent us an email and a text message with a link to make appointment to let a staff calling us. And few hours later, another text message said the link they sent us was not working but they were trying to fix it.
至於學校是不是有確認學生都能在家上課，是寄了一個問卷詢問關於改成遠距教學的回饋，學校有提供IT方面的協助：申請網路流量，或是電腦設備。
As if the university ever ensures students could stay at home with remote teaching, they sen as a questionnaire about our feedback in remote learning. They also offered IT pack for extra data or IT equipment (like screens or computers).
但學校的這些服務，在我看來，很難直接與 "學校打電話給每個學生確定大家在家都能上課" 連在一起。又或者說，以我們的認知來說，學校的作為和他們交給城市網站的廣告詞有很大的落差。
But whatever they said in the emails or in this post (more like an ad to me) is quite different from what I have experienced in the past few months. To me, they didn't really "call me" to ensure I can work from home. In our language and culture, what they said is very different from what they did in our definition.
又或者，以學校的定義來說，我可能不算這篇文章裡定義的學生：
Or, maybe I'm not a "student" by their definition:
1. 我是國際學生，而不是學生
1. I am an "international student", not a student.
2. 這個服務只針對大學部的學生，研究所以上沒有這樣的福利
2. I'm a postgraduate student, not a undergraduate student in my 18.
3. 學校在去年入學的時候就沒有把我放在學生名單裡面，甚至今年初的收費系統也出現他們自己難以解釋的錯誤
3. I was not in their student list when I started my program last year. There was also a mistake in their billing system that they could not explain at the beginning of this year.
總之，做為一個看起來就不像當地人的學生來說，學校的很多這些廣告的服務對象都不是我們。他們可能會服務班上部份的學生，但總之，不論他們說他們做了什麼，通常沒有發生在我和身邊其他國際學生的身上。
Anyway, as a student who obviously don't look like a local (well, to be clearer, I'm not white), most of these university ads and services are not targeting me. They might serve some students in the campus, but just not me nor my other international student friends I know.
