I only started remembering which side west is (relative to north) when I started thinking of “the wild west” and then thinking of where the wild west was. Still can’t use it in the real world for anything though. At most if I’m at my own town I know approximately where north is, but anywhere else I’ll quickly lose the sense of which direction is which.
You’re not supposed to intrinsically have your sense of direction in an unfamiliar location. Some people can do that but assuming you’re not paying full attention on your way to a new location it’s actually normal and expected to have to get your bearings which means taking a moment to orient yourself and figure out what direction is what. And then it’s easy to forget (let’s say you step into a store) until you build a sense of landmarks. Also the more dense a location the harder it is because it’s more complex.
I only started remembering which side west is (relative to north) when I started thinking of “the wild west” and then thinking of where the wild west was. Still can’t use it in the real world for anything though. At most if I’m at my own town I know approximately where north is, but anywhere else I’ll quickly lose the sense of which direction is which.
You’re not supposed to intrinsically have your sense of direction in an unfamiliar location. Some people can do that but assuming you’re not paying full attention on your way to a new location it’s actually normal and expected to have to get your bearings which means taking a moment to orient yourself and figure out what direction is what. And then it’s easy to forget (let’s say you step into a store) until you build a sense of landmarks. Also the more dense a location the harder it is because it’s more complex.