I had a friend who never bothered to learn 'right' or 'left'. She relied on
everyone knowing what she meant when she said 'knife' and 'fork'.
<g> In Poland, when a lot of young peasants were suddenly conscripted into the army (pre WWII), a lot of them had the left/right problem, which interfered with their drills. That wouldn't "do" for marching on parades, so... Each of them would hold a bit of something he was familiar with, and the officer, instead of yelling "left! right! left! right!, yelled: "hay! straw! hay! straw!". I used to think it was some sort of "urban legend", but then asked my father, and he confirmed it (though very reluctantly, with much hemming and hawing <g>)
For me, even "knife, fork" doesn't work; I still have to look down on my hands to remember which one ought to hold what, even though, at the dinner table, I have no trouble at all. And I'm not entirely sure that a "determined leftie" holds the utensils the same way a "determined rightie" does... There's also the peculiar habit some people have here, where you first cut up all your food to bite-sized pieces, then put the knife down (never to be used again) and switch the fork to your right hand for eating. I'd think, for those people, "fork" would still be confusing (though "knife" shouldn't be)
I had hoped that, once I learnt to drive, I'd learn the left from the right, as such decisions are much more frequent than when one's walking, but no. It's still "this way" and "that way" (accompanied by a head toss in the correct direction) when I tell someone how to go, and looking at my hands when someone tells me how to turn...
----- Tamara P Duvall Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd/
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