On Thu, 04 Feb 2016 12:34:46 +0000, Harry Bloomfield wrote:

T i m wrote on 03/02/2016 :
Hmm, that's the thing, I can't imagine *not* being able to explain it
to an alien (even). Right is just the label to that side / direction,
just as is forward or up. How come even those who can't remember their
left from right, don't generally have issues with the other dimensions?

Left and right are more or less symmetrical, the others are not. I am
one who has always struggled or at least taken a few seconds to work it
out - left from right.

I pick a pen up and if I think about it, I am lost. The same with knife
and fork. I am though, mostly ambidextrous. I was born left handed, but
at school I was one who was forced to right handedness, by tieing my
left hand behind my back, so now I write right handed, but my hand
writing is terrible.

Someone who I was teaching to drive had a problem distinguishing left
from right, so I put a large L and R on the back of his hands :')

If I have SWMBO navigating (haven't for a while!) it's dreadful. She gets
right and left mixed up.

We mostly cured it by getting her to say 'my side' or 'your side'.