tell left from right: how exactly is this supposed to be easy?

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neither sistrah becky nor i are good at working out which is left and which isn't

apparently this is quite common on ile

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 15:28 (twenty-two years ago)

who is bad and how do you cope?

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 15:29 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm very very bad at it. Once people start using the words "left" and "right" when giving directions, I tune out. I only got it straight late into my childhood. (I also couldn't tie my shoes for the longest time, for what it's worth.)

How did I get over the mountain? The wonder of homonyms: I WRITE with my RIGHT hand, so the other one must be my left hand.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 15:54 (twenty-two years ago)

I get mixed up sometimes in my head briefly, so if I ever am giving you directions and I say turn right, but I'm pointing left, go the way I'm pointing.

― luna (luna.c), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 15:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Why don't you just guess? You've got a 50/50 chance?

― NA (Nick A.), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 15:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I can also remember having a devil of a time telling the difference between "6" and "9" when I was much much younger. There are also a few entries in the multiplication table whose answers I have problems with -- I've only been able to rattle off the answers to 4x8 and 4x9 within the last ten years.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 15:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Why don't you just guess? You've got a 50/50 chance?

The glass is half-empty. That's why.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 15:58 (twenty-two years ago)

i couldn't do it at all until i broke my right arm.

― fcussen (Burger), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 16:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I suspect that I actually know my left and right. But as soon as I'm about to confidently say and point 'right', my brain goes 'wait, you don't REALLY know your left and right do you? So what makes you think you're correct here? Probably, you should pick the option that you feel is less likely.' and by the time I've finished that evil bit of self-second-guessing, I'm pointing right and saying 'left, er, no, yeah left, or right, umm...' and people are looking at me funny or possibly just screaming if I'm in a car with them at the time.

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 16:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I may score comparatively badly in test the nation, but I always know left from right, east from west, salt from pepper.

― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 16:08 (twenty-two years ago)

I know east and west because they spell 'WE' :)

But I don't know why I can remember that and not write/right or sticking up thumbs or whatever.

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 16:14 (twenty-two years ago)

I can figure it out, but it's not a skill I've exactly mastered...

― Chris P (Chris P), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 16:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Never Eat Shredded Wheat - with a pointy motion.

― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 16:19 (twenty-two years ago)

I never have any problems with left & right, but James does, which can prove difficult when he is map reading & I am driving!

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 16:19 (twenty-two years ago)

left has the same number of letters as port, so it's on that side, and right must be on the starboard side :)

I actually remember due to going to an exhibition or something when I was little and having to go to the toilet. I asked someone which direction it was, and they said down there and it's on the left. My consternation must have been pretty visible, because they asked me to hold out my hands and said "this is your left hand". The sense of urgency that my bladder gave that moment has solved that problem forever.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 16:28 (twenty-two years ago)

My dad has used that to make jokes abt me and i actually didn't know it was common for ppl to have probs with it (not something I was terribly bothered abt anyway).

I have got better at it but I still have to think so I don't make a mistake.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 16:28 (twenty-two years ago)

I can do it, but I still have a terrible sense of direction.

― animal wrangler (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 16:28 (twenty-two years ago)

use the thumb/index finger trick! spread them apart on each hand - the one shaped like an "L" = left

(this doesn't help everyone: my friend n is about to take her driver's permit test, and is convinced she'll still have to secretly mark a tiny R and L on her hands to keep it straight under pressure)

― jones (actual), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 16:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Wow, I've never had a problem with this. I guess I had you "write" with your "right" instilled at a young age or something.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 17:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I think it also helps to be one who often drives ... both in being able to visualize directions that are being verbally told to you, and reinforcing things like "right turn on red", etc.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 17:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Jel OTM.

― David. (Cozen), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 17:15 (twenty-two years ago)

When I was little, I hated the L rule (use the thumb/index finger trick! spread them apart on each hand - the one shaped like an "L" = left) because I would say that if you turned your hand a bit, either hand could make an L. Thus, I decided, that was stupid and didn't work!

It took me a while to understand that something can be to your left, but when you turn around it can then be on your right.

But then again, I also questioned how anything on tv could be considered live and why the weatherman said things like, 'a HIGH in the LOW seventies.'

― Sarah McLUsky (coco), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 17:16 (twenty-two years ago)

I'll often say one and mean the other, like luna. I'm so much better at NSEW. I always give directions like this: Turn left--you will then be travelling east on Broadway (as much for me as for the other person).

― teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 17:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I never know which way is which!

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 17:23 (twenty-two years ago)

left has the same number of letters as port, so it's on that side, and right must be on the starboard side :)

Thank you tremendously for this helpful bit of info, Andrew! I'm sure that someday it will come in very useful, even if it is through answering a question on a quiz show.

Wow. I never figured you guys, with your supreme mental faculties, would find something like this utterly confusing or hard to figure out. I mean, I have no problems at all with "left" or "right", and only have a problem with "north", "south", "east", or "west" if I'm having to point in any of those directions (because our city's so full of twisty, curvy streets that their orientation can get confusing), and I certainly don't feel my brain power measures up to you lot's. Ergo, I would've thought this would've been one of the easiest things for you guys to figure out, this whole directional/orientational thing.

Disclaimer: I'm the type who only on a few occasions has ever gotten lost while driving. I can usually find my way around various places without too much fuss.

p.s.: Now that teeny's reminded me here, I do have to say that I try to be as helpful as possible when giving directions. For example, I'll say something like, "If you're on Medical heading from Fredericksburg to Babcock, then turn left on Babcock. But stay on the right-hand lane because you'll need to turn right once you hit Wurzbach," so I know the person won't get lost.

― Just Deanna (Dee the Lurker), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 17:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I can remember left from right cuz I listen to the wind to the wind of my soul and it says go left and where I end up only Gawd really knows.

― nickalicious islam (nickalicious), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 17:26 (twenty-two years ago)

My wife has to look at her hands for the "L for left" rule every now and then. It's really cute.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 17:27 (twenty-two years ago)

My bf posted this 5 seconds ago:
Well, golly, I'm a stupid hick. How can Sarah be two places at once? Duh, I'm stupid.

― Sarah McLUsky (coco), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 17:30 (twenty-two years ago)

The best, most helpful mnemonic device ever invented is "righty-tighty, lefty-loosey".

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 17:54 (twenty-two years ago)

I occasionally write in the air to see which is which- the one that doesn't feel wierd must be right.

― Myron Kosloff, Wednesday, 10 September 2003 18:19 (twenty-two years ago)

I can do left and right, but the compass directions are a problem in practice, although theoretically they make sense.

― Maria (Maria), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 18:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Mr. Diamond is OTM. I have to repeat that to myself in my head sometimes when opening jars.

― Sarah McLUsky (coco), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 18:41 (twenty-two years ago)

nobody told me righty tighty until I was in college, it was like golden beams of light shining down on me from heaven.

― teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 18:49 (twenty-two years ago)

righty tighty makes no sense. it depends on whether you're talking about the top or the bottom of the object you are tightening / loosening, the two extremes are travelling in different directions. (and clockwise doesn't work if you're looking at the clock from the back but that's less of a common situation to be in).

i also have trouble with left and right so i generally point. and immediately after pointing i can say either 'left' or 'right' as appropriate so that's ok. looks daft when you're on the phone though. but luckily the person on the other end can't see.

andy

― koogs (koogs), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 19:35 (twenty-two years ago)

My wife has to look at her hands for the "L for left" rule every now and then.

yeah i always have to do that.

― The Lady Ms Lurex (lucylurex), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 19:41 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah i always have to do that.

I've always done that, too! Hell, if looking at my hand means I won't turn some corner and get lost, here's my finger and here's my thumb

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 19:44 (twenty-two years ago)

The write/right thing doesn't work for me because I still have to think for a moment about which hand it is that I write with. I'm terrible about right and left, and no matter how many devices people have provided me with to differentiate the two, it still takes me a moment or two to figure it out.

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 19:45 (twenty-two years ago)

I haven't had any problems with this since I was about 10.
However, I did mix up my north and south when I was at college. I lived in the far south suburbs of Chicago my whole life. Every time I entered another town it would be from the south. Anything further into a town would be north. South would be 'heading out of town the way I came in'.
I drove into Champaign, my college town, from the north and I guess my mental map just flipped everything so it would make sense to me. So north became south and south became north. This wouldn't be too big of a deal if not for the fact that I worked as a deliver driver. "Oh, that's just a little south of Kirby Ave." I'd hear 'south' but it would get instantly traslated as 'heading out of town the way I came in'.

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 19:46 (twenty-two years ago)

When I was little I used to write 'AB is nuts' in the air (AB are my sister's initials), knowing that the side I started from was the left.

I don't do this anymore.

MS is nuts.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 19:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Is there any explanation for why some people have this problem?

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 19:49 (twenty-two years ago)

When I was taking driver's ed, my instructor said the only people he ever encountered besides me who couldn't tell the difference between their left and their right were severely learning disabled.

I was incredibly insulted!

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 19:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I always wear my watch on my LEFT arm and my bling on my RIGHT, prob. solved

I can also tell shit from Shinola

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 20:26 (twenty-two years ago)

ILE must be renamed Direction Spastics at once. Why don't those of you with trouble get someone friendly to tell you which is left and which is right, then sit down for 5 minutes and LEARN it?

(The only comparable thing I have difficulty with is the alphabet between H and M. I have to say all the letters out loud every time to figure out where J, K and L fit into the scheme of things.)

― Mark C (Mark C), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 20:36 (twenty-two years ago)

WOW MARK you are about 8 million times braver than I am.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 20:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Grow a mole on one of your hands. Then remember.

― David. (Cozen), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 20:37 (twenty-two years ago)

JKL is like the easiest bit of the alphabet! It's even there on the keyboard (assuming you know your left from right).

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 20:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Am I the only 'normal' here?

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 20:39 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought I was normal!

(another candidate for my memoirs title)

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 20:44 (twenty-two years ago)

dude its easy heres how i can tell.. hold your hands out in front of you like fists then point your index finger up and yout thumb out sideways the one that makes a correct L is the left! happy hunting!

― chaki (chaki), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 20:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Jones suggested this already but... what if you hold your fist the wrong way up because you have no concept of up and down?

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 20:54 (twenty-two years ago)

What if you have to have your nose blown and your arse wiped for you, too?

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 21:01 (twenty-two years ago)

The 'left or right' thingy is dead easy. No problem.
What's a much more mindboggling matter, now and again, is telling 'before' from 'after'.

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 21:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Before is left of after.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 21:17 (twenty-two years ago)

(suspicious mode on) is sinkah asking this for another of his booklets-to-be-written or wot? (/suspicious mode off)

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 21:21 (twenty-two years ago)

This is one of those things I can just do. I'm incredibly monodextrous though, to the extent that my right hand feels totally different to my left.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 21:23 (twenty-two years ago)

I didn't learn it until 2nd grade (piano lessons helped), but I haven't had any problems with it since.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 21:27 (twenty-two years ago)

WTF is up with you people?

― David. (Cozen), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 21:28 (twenty-two years ago)

I didn't learn to tie my shoes until about that time too. Seriously, why is velcro just for kids?

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 21:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Before is left of after. -- N.

Funny, that's exactly what everyone from my grandma to my wife's half-brother keeps telling me, b-b-but when *i* go and look -- it's
fkn n e v e r t h e r e!!

Well, i do manage to find after, mostly - south of right, as it usually is. (At least in the springtime. And during indian summer)

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 21:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I have to picture myself writing, sometimes to the extent of having to make little surreptitious writing motions with my hands. The embarrassing part is getting caught at it.

― Layna Andersen (Layna Andersen), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 22:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm astonished by this too, not that I'm knocking anyone, I am just amazed many of you have the spatial issues.

Mind you, even though I know left from right perfectly well I've been known to say "turn right" in a car when I bloody well knew I meant left.. I dont know why.

I never know which way is east or anything, I have to do the "never eat stale worms" thing. But I'm one of those twits who walks out of a shop and is bewlidered about which way I'm meant to be going.

Now maths on the other hand. That I'm a total retard at. I still have to do simple maths, like 4 plus 7, on my FINGERS :-/ And any simple mutiplication involves a calculator or a rapid mental run thru my timestables from primary school. I'm the worst maths retard ever.

And yet I love the film Pi. Go figure.

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 11 September 2003 00:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh and re the alphabet, that I sometimes get a little muddled on too, tho I always remember LMNOP, cos I say it as "ellamennopee", like it was one word.

Often have to write a word down to check how its spelt too even though I can spell really well. Cant "spell" it out loud. Odd.

The brain be a funny beast.

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 11 September 2003 00:45 (twenty-two years ago)

left and right i was always fine with, but i could never associate east with right and west with left for the longest time.

thinking of a u.s. map and knowing i lived on california which everyone called the WEST coast eventually taught me, but every now and then i lapse into confusion over it.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Thursday, 11 September 2003 03:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I guess its easier down here, what with a stonking great right-hand chunk of the country being called Western Australia...

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 11 September 2003 03:03 (twenty-two years ago)

err... left hand. FUCK.

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 11 September 2003 03:03 (twenty-two years ago)

See, but I bet you were thinking 'left' in your head

― oops (Oops), Thursday, 11 September 2003 03:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm not sure what I was thinking anymore *cries*.

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 11 September 2003 04:01 (twenty-two years ago)

There, there. There's a box of kleenex to your right. No, your other right. No, sorry, you were right the first time.

― oops (Oops), Thursday, 11 September 2003 04:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, but Australia is in the southern hemisphere, so maybe Western Australia is on the right hand side. Like, don't you have to look at the globe upside down for it to "make sense" or something?

Okay, for some reason, I now feel like crying, too.

― David A. (Davant), Thursday, 11 September 2003 05:47 (twenty-two years ago)

STOP IT IM ALL CONFUSED NOW WHERE AM I?!!? :(((

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 11 September 2003 05:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Heh heh. And don't horses run the opposite way around your race tracks and water run the other way down plugholes and...

Hey. Serious thought. How many of the left/right challenged folks are right handed? I'm a lefty , and I pretty much had to learn early on how "different" (read: freakish) I was. I also got mad at a few religious teachers (Catholic school) for that whole "right hand of God" thing. For some reason, it really pissed me off. Like, what's the freaking left, chopped liver or something?

And don't even get me started on sheep and goats...

― David A. (Davant), Thursday, 11 September 2003 06:05 (twenty-two years ago)

me driving. my ex directing " take the next left"
i do.
him yelling " i said LEFT LEFT "
ME " YES "

― donna (donna), Thursday, 11 September 2003 06:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Hehehe argh thats me :/

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 11 September 2003 06:56 (twenty-two years ago)

obviously it's easier when you have use of yr hands and can wave them around, when you're DRIVING is when it matters

i think it is to do w.evolution => eg my tremendous brane has evolved BEYOND the merely binary

i shall write an entry to the geetablog abt this and win a nobel prize for ~~chutzpah~~ hands science

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 11 September 2003 07:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Surely the trick we smart kids all learned when young is to internalise the hand waving? (ie. you can feel which hand you *would* do something with, without actually having to put it in the air and look at it).

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 11 September 2003 07:19 (twenty-two years ago)

left/right is easy. east/west still takes me a moment's thought, which is irritating when getting on the tube at an unfamiliar station. i put it down to rubbish teaching - we learnt the compass points at school by "never eat shredded wheat", so to work out which way is west i have to go through all four of them. i don't have a north/south problem, though.

― toby (tsg20), Thursday, 11 September 2003 07:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I wonder if Nestlé are spending any time trying to counter this negative indoctrination or if they have other things to worry about.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 11 September 2003 07:32 (twenty-two years ago)

yes but n. it is harder to internalise the movements of a secondary pseudo-body donned in the late stages of life

obviously i have no problem with the 3125 points of the five-dimensional meta-compass mapped out by my lovely tentacles back in the elder times

i miss my tentacles :(

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 11 September 2003 07:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Cthulhu to thread!

― robster (robster), Thursday, 11 September 2003 08:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Nestle's stale worms product line was put back years, Nick.

― Mark C (Mark C), Thursday, 11 September 2003 09:58 (twenty-two years ago)

I used to like Shredded Wheat when it was Nabisco!

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 11 September 2003 10:24 (twenty-two years ago)

three months pass...

Well, I'm 42 and no matter how many tricks I try, knowing my right from left is not automatic. Does anyone know what actually causes this? A brain glitch? Otherwise, I consider myself fairly intelligent...got through college and worked my way up the corporate ladder quite well. But, it would be nice to have my friends be able to give directions without pointing, and to not have that little nano-second freak attack when someone tells me it is the first door on the left....:)

― Brenda T., Tuesday, 30 December 2003 20:44 (twenty-one years ago)

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