I wonder if this works differently for people who are Guugu Yimithirr or Sambals?

Guugu Yimithirr is an aboriginal tribe in Australia, and Sambals are an ethnic group in the Philippines.

The Guugu Yimithirr and Sambali languages use absolute directions rather than relative directions to specify where things are in relation to other things.

For example, imagine standing in the south end of hallway that runs north/south, telling someone where the bathroom is. We'd say something like it being the second door on the left.

A Guugu Yimithirr or Sambal would say it is the second door on the West. Sambali does have words for left, right, front, back but they are mostly just used for describing things on the body, like a left hand.

Another interesting use of absolute rather than relative direction in Guugu Yimithirr is how they visualize time. Researches showed Guugu Yimithirr pictures showing someone throughout that person's life and asked the Guugu Yimithirr to order them chronologically.

When they did this, the arranged the pictures from east to west, with youngest on the east. So if the person doing this was sitting at a table facing North, they arranged the pictures right to left. If they were facing South, they arrange the pictures left to right.

More detail on Sambali in this Reddit comment from a native speaker [1].

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1m6l0b/til_t...