He doesn't get it from me

I have a decent sense of direction. I can read a map and if I have a compass and possibly a landmark, I can figure out where I am on that map and get myself where I want to go. Having said that, I really don't have a "great" sense of direction in that if I'm put on the spot I will usually assume that North is directly in front of me. At dinner tonight Master J and I were discussing a book he had read earlier in the day ("Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" in case you're wondering). In the book, instead of weather, food comes from the sky and they talk about storms of hamburgers coming out of the northeast. Thinking that this would be a great learning opportunity, I asked him which direction would be northeast. He immediately pointed to a direction and I responded with "Are you sure?". He looked at me somewhat quizzically and said "Of course! I'm facing south so north would be behind me and east would be on my left, so northeast is right here (pointing just past his shoulder)" And I realized that when I had asked him the question, I had assumed that north was in front of him. Cause you know, that's where it always is. Right?