Natural Sciences VS. Social Sciences, I wish I’d known the differences sooner
To save you some time, skip the appetizer and jump to the main course at : So what are the differences between Natural Sciences and Social Sciences?
How I ended up studying social sciences and not natural sciences:
I grew up in a middle-class family, not upper not lower, right in the middle. My mom grew up in poverty while my dad grew up in an upper-middle class family, at least during when my grand father was still alive. So let’s do the math here, it ends right in the middle. My mom couldn’t get into higher education because her family was so poor so she went to a vocational school and worked hard since young age. My dad has a university degree in business and management.
Note: In Thailand, if you have good grades and good-enough economy, you pursue a university degree. It’s the only way to climb a career ladder and make it out of poverty. Vocational schools are not so well-regarded there, which is a shame.
In Asia, you’re always academically competing with others since day 1 on the earth. There are about 70 million people but the resources are only reserved for the richest and the smartest (how could I forget the corrupted?)… so you have to try hard or you never make it out of poverty. Dad had his own construction company that dealt with many international clients who wanted to build luxurious resorts in Thailand. He then told me to study English and foreign languages because he found them useful. By the way his business was gone in just a second during the Tsunami in 2004, so we were back to zero, actually minus.
Hearing this from young age and the fact that I didn’t know better, I followed their advice. Sadly, the most part was just about the ego. Sadder, I wasn’t aware of that. Saddest, I thought I had no ego but the rest of my peers.
That’s why I chose the most elite university in Thailand studying humanities and Western cultures. I can talk about everything from Descartes’ philosophy to classical art and literature’s Critical Theory… As a Thai person, it’s a WOW (right? I’m not sure it’s still a wow factor anymore but at least it was 15 years ago). Well, it’s a wow in Thailand but just a so-what? in Europe where I’m living now.
My bubble was burst h a r d:
I moved to Sweden 5 years ago just to realize I couldn’t use the perks of being part of the Thailand’s elite class anymore. Who cares if you can speak 4 languages, you only need to speak English (and a bit of Swedish). They don’t even realize how hard a Thai person needs to work in order to perfect her English because we had to start from the alphabets, let alone the grammar and vocabulary!!!! Who cares if you not only speak English perfectly but also French. My world started to crumble, I worked hard for nothing. I know many immigrants have this struggle, not just me. There’re plenty of foreign doctors, engineers and scientists, so it’s easier for them for sure to settle in a new country (considering them having core competency). That makes me even more frustrated, why didn’t I study natural sciences or even practical skills that vocational schools offer!?!?!?!?!
I was stubborn… I didn’t stop there. I got into a Master’s degree in literature just because I scrolled Facebook and saw plenty of my mega-elite university friends continuing their Master’s degree in social sciences abroad (PolSci, ComLit, Law, etc). I still didn’t realize that this was exactly the definition of ‘bad faith’ (mauvaise foi in French or självbedrägeri in Swedish). The philosophy classes I enrolled couldn’t rescue me…
I’m sure this was good for them, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for me and my life situation. I can’t believe I’m almost 30 years old and still pretty much comparing myself to others on social media. Like you’d be scared for your younger folks to fall into this trap, look here, it’s not just them…
So what are the differences between Natural Sciences and Social Sciences?
We had this discussion during a class at Stockholm University while I was doing my Master’s. First of all, natural sciences deal with everything in the physical world while social sciences deal with humans and how we interact with each other in a society.
And then one very smart classmate said something that made me immediately drop out from my Master’s. He said that (not his exact words and I forgot his name, I’m sorry):
One needs to be objective when it comes to treating natural sciences.
Wait, what? Did it mean that I was dealing with everything subjective the whole time? The Critical Theory I tried to memorize and swallow was just something that was according to someone, in other word, subjective to his/her view? Call me stupid but I certainly didn’t realize this. Can I blame it on Thailand’s education? It didn’t allow much room for critical thinking and opened discussions like in the West so I pretty much memorized everything and passed the exams.
How many times one’s world can crumble?
It was also discussed during the class that a lot of people study social sciences because their grades were not good enough to get into an education in natural sciences. While this may be true, my grades were good enough to study math and sciences and a lot of people in my faculty came from math and sciences program/background.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean that being subjective is negative, worse or better than the other parallel. I brought this up with my best friend who studied maths and physics. She said this:
I find being subjective harder than being objective because there’s no right or wrong and it always requires interpretation and contextualism. In mathematics and physics, if you were to solve a problem, there would only be one answer. Sure there’re many ways to get to the answer, but there’s usually THE answer!) What you study though, there’s not just one answer. I find it very confusing so I admired you for that!
I wish I had known this earlier so I could balance it out more. I also wish I hadn’t carried with me the bad faith and the values from Thailand that are not compatible with the Swedish society. Joke on me, I thought I was not so “Thai” in my mentality.
I had a good job but it was nothing noble/prestigious so I quit. (I also had a burnout but mainly it was this bad mentality ( chasing status) I had that made me decide to quit). I have a degree that is not so appreciated but more than that, it’s not the most optimal choice in this new country and new life situation so I became anxious. However when it comes to getting a useful education like vocational education, my elitist brain stopped me. What would my Thai friends who are now working their ways in the academic field think of me? (FACT: people are too busy, no one really cares about what you do so why don’t you just do you?) Haha the result of low self-esteem, it is.
I applied for vocational schools and adult education(KomVux) because that’s what I need in order to survive and I enjoy learning the skill set they offer! I also applied for bootcamps and a university degree (that is a perfect mix between digitalization and humanities) to learn practical skills. I wasted many years to the low self-esteem and elitist me.
Again, I want to make it clear that I didn’t wish I had studied natural sciences instead. I just wish I had balanced it out between the two. I hope that natural scientists can agree — they need to know a bit about social sciences too.
End note: I realized that education in Thailand is all about privileges. I was not smarter or better than anyone, I just happened to have the privilege to gain access to more resources. My world crumbled once more…
