Emir wrote:
Is there anything similar in any other language besides English?
Yes, I think in most languages nautical terms are, ahem, different.
I guess that on anything bigger than a kayak, a sailor might be facing backwards in which case his left and right will be reversed relative to the boat’s, but port and starboard will remain the same.
In WW2 the terms were abandoned in the air as most pilots understood ‘break right’ much faster than ‘break starboard’.
A quick play with google translate suggests that countries with a coastline (Britain, Holland, Russia, Ukraine, Iceland) differentiate between the terms port/left starboard/right, but landlocked countries (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia) seem not to. I get slightly different results with DuckDuckGo translate, but broadly the pattern seems to hold
Emir wrote:
A bit OT but I’ve never been able to understand what has been wrong with left and right
Left and right is a different concept altogether. It’s not interchangeable. In all Scandinavian languages it called Styrbord (Starboard) and Babord/Bagbord (Port), I think this is also the same in German and Dutch. It’s from old Norse. Starboard (styrbord) literally means the “board” (plank) where the rudder was fastened on viking ships. Babord literally means “the board on the back side” (of the man holding the rudder).
While left/right is a relative concept, starboard/port is an absolute concept. A ship only has one starboard side, and that side is always the same (the right side seen from the aft). However, that side can be both left or right depending on which direction you look.
Nav lights also makes perfect sense when thinking in terms of styrbord/babord (starboard/port) because a red light would mean you are facing the back of the man steering the boat, he will have problems seeing you. Green means he will see you (if he is not too drunk 
)
The same exist even in aviation as on ships today. On aircraft with two pilots there is a captain and a first officer. In Norwegian it’s not called “first officer”, but “styrmann”, literally meaning the man who steers. The captain sits on port side, while the styrmann sits on the right side. English cars got it right also. The man who steers sits on the right, while the captain (the wife) sits on the left
In French it is similar babord and tribord.
LeSving wrote:
Nav lights also makes perfect sense when thinking in terms of styrbord/babord (starboard/port) because a red light would mean you are facing the back of the man steering the boat, he will have problems seeing you. Green means he will see you (if he is not too drunk )
Great explanation! Now I’ll never anymore be uncertain about which side the lights are on!
I remember them as:
Left wing = communist = red (commies usually have a red flag)
Does that mean that fascists are green?😀
Well, no, because
