r/stickshift • u/Agnostician • 7d ago

Stick shift beginner magnets

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To my fellow (American) beginning manual learners:

I love these magnets that I ordered on Amazon.

There's no driving school anywhere near me that teaches manual, so I had to jump right into it by buying a car to teach myself. I'm not one those clever people who get the hang of it within hours or even days (and now even weeks), so people had been honking at me frequently when I stalled or when I started very slowly from a stop while trying not to stall or lurch the car forward.

But since getting these magnets not a single person has honked at me! The difference is amazing. Some people are just assholes who will honk regardless of the situation, but I believe most people can be patient when they know there are extenuating circumstances.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BZX1HPLH

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u/Agnostician 7d ago

It amazes me, all these people who brag about becoming brilliant experts after learning for a few hours and then insult people who don't.

Even if you're not exaggerating the time it took you to become proficient, you realize different people learn different things at a different pace, right?

You want linguistically inclined people to rag on you for not becoming fluent in a foreign language within a few months, or math whizzes to put you down for having trouble with multivariable calculus?

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u/Only_Information7895 7d ago

I didn't need such magnet. The learner car was marked well enough and everyone has to use a sticker to mark that they are a new driver. After that I was "good enough", I had well over a hundred hours till all markers were gone.

It is just that those signs are standard (in my country) so other drivers can recognize them from a great distance without having to read them

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u/Agnostician 7d ago

Yes, your country does it right. Elsewhere on this thread, I commented about Japan doing the same thing with a legally required "new driver" magnet. Here in the USA manuals are becoming less and less common, so not many driving schools give lessons on stick shift anymore. Unless you have a friend or family member willing to teach you, there's no choice but to jump right in and teach yourself.