Me (freshly arrived in Korea for the first time): “Can I drink the tap water?”
He (American, several years in Korea): [Calmly] “Never drink the tap water.”
That was that. I didn’t question it. Why would I? He was the expert; I was a complete outsider.
Many Westerners who end up in Korea don’t get the message. I’ve known a few who openly say they drink tap water. Never have I heard a Korean say this. I most recently met a tall young man from Georgia (born 1993), recently arrived in Korea, who triumphantly announced that he drinks the tap water. My first instinct at his proclamation was that he needs to get with the program and do as the local people do. Then again, maybe the local people are all wrong and he should do what’s right after all. (The Herald itself says that the people are wrong and the Korean tap water is fine.)
What does it say about Koreans that they drink their own tap water at such low rates compared to the rest of the rich world, the USA and other Western countries (e.g., Germany: 90% drink tap water according to the Internet consensus)? The easiest answer is that Korea was poor just a short time ago and so blah blah blah. This is a stock answer to a lot of “questions about Korea”. More interesting lines of speculation are possible. Here is one: The desire for elaborate filtration systems or bottled water comes from the same place as the custom to always take off shoes at the door at all times. I think you may see where I’m going with that. Another possible speculation: For all Korea’s wealth today and its impressive “soft power” in Asia, Koreans don’t necessarily trust their own institutions (water as a social microcosm).
I always used to drink the tap water here in Korea, DESPITE having been told not to drink the tap water by Koreans when I arrived. I researched it some, when I got here, and to every indication it seemed fine, and so I decided to save money and drink tap water. Early on I developed suspicions about the excesses of “purity narratives” in Korean culture.
I would go so far as to save and fill bottled water bottles to take to work, so as not to alarm the Koreans around me, since to all appearances I was drinking bottled water.
Koreans are, I have to say, a substantially hypochondriac nation – with appropriate caveats about stereotyping and overgeneralization. Nevertheless, your two ideas, about shoes and institutional trust, are perhaps both either symptomatic or causitive in relation to that generalized cultural hypochondria.
I myself have become a hypochondriac, in the wake of my cancer. When I was diagnosed with mouth cancer, naturally I thought, what could be the cause? One possible cause was chemical contaminants and excessive chlorine etc. in Korean tap water, so I finally stopped that practice. Frankly, I doubt that was the cause, though. And I’ve been backsliding – I started using tap water again to brush my teeth, for example, mostly out of laziness.