A few years back, my wife wanted to learn to drive a stick shift "just because." It went amazingly well. We started in an industrial park on a weekend when there were roads a plenty, large parking lots, and almost zero traffic. She was already a good driver — taught by her father, a Honda engineer then executive from when he got out of college, who took driving seriously. The only problem, quickly solved, was that she tried to shift too rapidly. That was cured by comparing it to learning to draw a handgun: slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
Now she does not want an automatic: "I have to drive, so I want to have fun while I am doing it.