There are two major man-made landmarks for getting oriented
in the central city and nearby: Centraal Station and Dam Square.
The former is the train station, and chances are this is where
you arrive in the city. The latter is an open square next to
the palace not too far (10 minutes walk) from the train station.
The next thing to learn are the main waterways. There are canals all through the city. You have no hope of learning the names of all of them. The ones to know are Singel, Herengracht, Keizersgracht, and Prinsengracht. The four canals are along the west and south sides of the central city, pretty much (but not quite) ending at the Amstel River, the main river into the city and another of the water landmarks. In addition, there are several parallel canals in the eastern part of the central city, but I don't know their names. A word of warning, though: A bit further out, there is another canal that encircles the city: Singelgracht, which is different from the canal called Singel. Singelgracht is important because that's where the Rijksmusuem is.
For streets, I suggest that Damrak (which becomes Ronkin) is the only street you need to know (sort of -- the streets along the canals usually have names matching the canals). For anything else, you should have a map. And look at the names carefully, because there are several similar names for different streets, especially the canal streets.
Note that street signs appear (but not always!) on the corner buildings. They are blue signs about 3-5 meters off the ground.