Right or Left?

At lunch last Friday some of the teachers were talking about directions and getting lost. One admitted that she often gets lost, not because she forgets the directions, but because she sometimes turns right when she means to turn left or vice versa. Even adults can get confused at times.

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I told them that in English, since "left" begins with the letter L, you can make an L shape with your thumb and forefinger, and the one that makes the letter backwards is your right hand and the one with the actual letter is the left hand. It's a trick I've taken for granted, but the teachers were all amused. One didn't understand at first, because he kept thinking it was an arrow, with the left thumb pointing towards the right side, making no sense. They kept saying, "No, in English "Left" starts with an L. Your hand makes an L." Finally he got it.