Friend of mine in college picked up a VW bug real cheap and didn’t bother to learn the shift pattern. For a couple of days, he kept insisting on parking spaces he could pull through (we were in a small town in the mountains so it was actually possible to get away with that for a little while). Finally I told him to just try looking for reverse where I said it was instead of insisting it was on the other side of the H, and he suddenly knew how to back up.
And his dad owned an auto-parts store.
My Dad had a 1963 Chevelle That had the “Three on the Tree” type tranny. Then when I was 17, my dad got my mom’s 1992 Plymouth Laser in the divorce because she didn’t want that car anymore and then I bought the car off my Dad and it was a stick and at the time I didn’t know how to drive a stick shift…I was used to driving Dad’s 1990 Dodge Pickup which was automatic. My Dad was like “better learn how to drive a stick! You know how to drive a stick, you can drive just about anything!” Piece of cake! I lived out in the country so I could drive up and down the country roads (at least the ones that were paved or had gravel on them) and learn to shift gears properly. But being a typical little sporty car, the plymouth had a tiny pedals and I have big feet (ladies size 10)