I remember the first time I was asked to consider the question “what is a culture” at university. I was already living in the UK and despite coming from Spain and having had close contact with other countries, all I could think about was all of the things that we can see (like the architecture, the music, the art, etc) So, basically, the more “obvious” expressions of a culture.

And then the teacher said: “Culture is what shapes our behaviour and structures a person's perception of the world”. I remember saying… wow, that's deep! And she said… Indeed, as deep as this… And showed us an iceberg!

Since then (15 years ago) I have widely seen the concept of culture represented with an iceberg figure, something like this:

Interesting, right? So, when we travel, live or meet someone from another culture, all we are presented with initially is the very tip of “their iceberg”. The visual and most obvious elements that let...