I remember reading about how certain languages didn't have words for left & right, but used cardinal directions instead(0), and always wondered how they have an intuitive sense of where north is just to make themselves clear. It would certainly help to have it though.
(0) - ie: HokeyPokey would be a line of kids standing in a certain direction - you put your north foot in, you take your north foot out, you put your south foot in.. etc
The two main ways are based on geographical landmarks (west is towards the ocean, south is towards the desert, north is downriver, etc.) and the other is based on the sun/moon. East is the direction the sun/moon rises and west is the direction the sun/moon sets. One of the fascinating things I learned about antiquity is they would often orient their maps so east (the direction of the rising sun) was at the top of the map. They didn’t have magnetic compasses so there wasn’t anything special about north to cause them to orient their maps in that direction.
(0) - ie: HokeyPokey would be a line of kids standing in a certain direction - you put your north foot in, you take your north foot out, you put your south foot in.. etc