I can but my Wife can’t. But there are a few reasons for this.
I’m a cartographer/GIS programmer. NSEW is something I deal with every day. Also, the city I grew up in had streets based on a grid system. NSEW means something.
My Wife grew up in Pittsburgh. Often overcast, and the streets go any which way. Left and Right directions are pretty much a must.
I always know what direction I’m facing. On the rare occasions I don’t, it bothers me greatly and makes me feel untethered.
But I live in Tucson and around here it’s pretty easy. There is a large range of mountains just north of the city, so it’s easy to orient oneself.
Yes, and it doesn’t have to be daytime, either. The stars are just as useful as the sun for figuring out which direction is which. Aside from that, my instincts are usually almost perfect; unless I get really turned around, I can sense which direction I’m facing. And for those times I do get turned around, it doesn’t take long to gain my bearings - clouds or no clouds, landmarks or no landmarks.
I’ve read that “most” women navigate by landmarks, men like compass directions.
My wife frequently *feels *the right direction but she is usually wrong.
Yes, but it was much easier in Indiana, where the roads are generally straight, than it is in VA/NC, where they seem to be paved-over cow paths. If I can see the sun and I have a general idea of the time, I’m fine anywhere.
Really? Are you sure you just aren’t depending on your internal clock? Have you been drugged unconscious for an indeterminate amount of time and released in an unknown outdoor location to test your ability? I smell a Mythbusters episode. 
Who hasn’t?
No idea. I mean, I live in NYC and I can figure it out (after a LOT of thinking because it doesn’t come naturally to me) that when you’re facing north east is left and west is right, but I forget a lot and it’s hard. I could NEVER do it by the sun.
Haven’t spent much time in Britain, have you? 
Edit: Freudian Slit. you have that exactly backwards! Facing north, east is on your right.
Oops. Crap. You see what I mean about sucking at spatial skills? If I lived out in the country where I had to navigate by the sun I’d have been eaten by bears long ago.
Ok, I answered no, but I only mean “no” if I was outside as in “in the middle of nowhere”. If I’m outside in the city I live in, then yes, I’d understand what direction I’m facing.
Edited: Dammit, I guess I mean “No if I’m outside in the middle of nowhere and it’s close to noon”. If it’s earlier/later in the day, I can figure it out by the sun’s position.
I guess I should have answered “yes”.
I know how shadows work and how the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. So if I were walking and someone said “turn south,” and it was afternoon, I could look at my shadow and/or the sky and figure it out. But I’d be thinking “what a twit.” “Left” and “right” are much more useful directions as is “toward the (large easily viewable landmark)” or “uphill.” If I’m driving, “go South” is useless as I don’t have time to figure out what that means in time to do anything about it. (“toward the equator” how could that possibly be helpful? That’s grounds for divorce)
If it’s overcast, night, noon(ish), or there’s something else blocking the shadows or the sun, I have no idea what direction I’m facing. North could be anywhere.
Give me 10 minutes, the sun, and a stick. I’ll tell you where NESW are.
Put stick in ground. Mark end of shadow. Wait 10 minutes, mark end of shadow. Connect marks. That mark is roughly east/west, bisect it to make North/South. (This works North of the equator)
I’m usually right on with my directions, which drive my wife, and my friends crazy when we’re out and about, and need to navigate. I love pointing north, without pulling out my compass, then being confirmed by the compass that they pull out. It’s not 100% accurate, but it’s usually pretty close.
I have a very bad directional sense, but do fine if I’ve studied a map. I’ll happily use “East”, “South”, etc. to label directions but I don’t look at sun or shadows: I’m just recalling the memorized map where Top = North.
If I’m inside a department store and need directions to another part of town I have to wait till I’m in sight of entrance to ask. Otherwise someone will point in the direction I need, but I’ll lose track after the turns I need to get out of the building.
The large city nearest me has a sequence of major streets and highways I follow to do errands. I make what seem like 90-degree turns, and the roads are more or less straight, but something’s “imperfect” because it’s five roads tracing a pentagon, not four roads tracing a rectangle. Boy, did that confuse me till I finally looked at a map.
I laugh and laugh when people say “look at the sun”. Ok, sure. It’s sunny and there aren’t many buildings around. Yay! But I live in the northeast. 3 days out of 7 it’s either raining, snowing, or very cloudy. Dark, gray clouds, where you can’t see the sun.
And honestly, I’m not exactly sure how that is supposed to help me half the time. Ok. So I am on a back street, yes? Say I am looking for Shalimar in downtown Troy, which has given me trouble before.
Sure, I can head west towards the river, but there’s a ton of one-way streets and suchlike; I’d rather have a street name. I don’t mind pulling over and asking for a street name.
If I call you from a back street because i am lost, just please tell me what the nearest large road is and I will find it. Generally I never call anyone anyway and just pull out the map. 
Exactly what I was getting at. Not to mention the sun is only about 20 degrees above the horizon at winter solstice here.
San Antonio, huh? You’ve never lived anywhere with true cloud cover, have you?
I second this. Figuring it out isn’t hard, and if I’m in the town I live or work, I know the general directions. However, when being given directions over the phone, it drives me nuts when someone says “now turn South on Broadway”, my instant response is “Left or right?”, because that’s how I’m figuring out where to turn.
Another one who feels extremely uncomfortable when I don’t have some idea of the compass direction I’m pointed at. Normally given any kind of clue (the sun, moon, stars, a known landmark, general slope of the land…) I can figure it out. In the middle of a hilly city that I’m not familiar with, with unrecognized hills in all directions and no sun to work with… I feel lost (Haifa, Jerusalem, I’m looking at you :mad: )
Yes, but if you call us from Broadway & Main, how would we possibly know which way IS left or right? We don’t know which way you’re facing, therefore we don’t know where left or right goes.