Here's one way to try to see white balance: If you have a room with both fluorescent lights and regular (incandescent) light bulbs, try viewing your skin under each light source. You'll notice you look tan under the orangish incandescent lights; and sickly green under fluorescent lights.

Another way to grasp this idea is to try on those sunglasses with the bright yellow (or any color) lenses. At first, everything looks yellowish, but after a few minutes, your brain compensates and the colors look pretty much normal. This is a process our eyes (and brain) go through constantly.