Directionally Challenged?

On top of our language class three days per week, we meet three evenings per week with our language helper, Vera.  These learner-driven sessions are dictated by language acquisition projects (LAPs) we were given during the language training at M.T.I.

During these times with Vera we have learned vocabulary and common phrases/commands for everything from rooms in the house to places in the community and ways to prepare food.  Today we learned the vocabulary related to the parts of our body around our head (neck, cheek, ear, eyes, nose, mouth, forehead, hair, neck, etc.) with the various verb forms for "to point" or "to cover" the specific part with our left or right hand.

One of our favorite parts of doing LAPs comes at the conclusion of all the progressions when we get to ask cultural questions related to the topic.  For instance, are there hand gestures that might be inappropriate here?  Do you have any expressions like "she has a green thumb" or he "talks out of both sides of  his mouth?"

Vera shared that Albanians have an expression for a ravenous person -- someone who chews on both sides of the mouth at the same time.

But the interesting gem was not a phrase or idiom at all.  She told us that in years past, most folks in the village did not differentiate between their "right" and "left", so when it came time to lead armies of villagers in the military, commanders came up with a unique method for giving directions.  They would give recruits an onion for their right hand and a clove of garlic for the left hand.  When wanting everyone to go right, they'd yell, "qepë!" (onion).  To go left, they'd yell "hudhër!" (garlic).

Supposedly, some people still remember their right and left this way!

So how do YOU tell your right from your left?  :-)