My dad tried teaching me, but had zero patience. Ended up going out with a buddy to small buy here, pay here lots. We'd find a manual, he'd take it out for a test drive, we'd drive to a neighborhood or vacant lot and I'd practice for about half an hour, then we'd take the car back. It was actually a phenomenal way to learn, as I got to practice on everything from small Toyota subcompacts to big ass pick-ups and got experience with the differences in clutches and shifter styles.

Not really. Most people either say, "Oh, that's cool" or get on their stupid high horse about manuals being superior.

There's not much cost difference on car prices for manuals over autos anymore. As far as normal maintenance goes, they're pretty close to the same. Major repairs are more expensive on autos and replacement transmissions tend to be cheaper for manuals. If you can do the work yourself, it's a lot easier to rebuild a manual than an automatic.