Hows the best way you learned how to drive a stick shift without owning one yet

First thing, I say to check out some videos on youtube and get yourself familiar with how manual transmissions work. Look for videos showing the transmission itself and how it operates, and also find some videos with people giving (good!) tips and showing in the car how it works.

Now, while I haven't done so in real life, I always drive manual in racing sims. While it's not going to be the same exact experience, I would say that by getting yourself a decent wheel with a shifter (a G27 or better) and getting some racing sims (or trying to find some sort of realistic driving sim), you could work on the technique in your own home. If you have no interest in racing sims, though, you may not want to take that route.

But, the biggest thing is just being able to practice with a real car, and to do it often. It's probably not the greatest idea, but you could probably use a rental to practice with in some parking lot. It's really not something that you'll be ok at quickly, though. It will take a good amount of time before you'll be comfortable with it.

Definitely practice with an instructor: mine used to say that a car is a lethal weapon and you always need to be responsible when driving...

I have only ever driven cars with manual transmission so I can't speak about the process of learning to manually change gear when you already know how to drive automatic cars.

As far as tips go, I'd suggest to try and avoid making the rookie mistake of keeping your right end always on the shift, because it will distract you. Changing gear will eventually come naturally, just try to start slow and don't expect to learn in a day :-p

I can tell you that there's no better answer than going to driving school and buying 2 hours of driving on manual stick car :) there's no other way you can safely drive these types of cars, of course you can watch some videos before or use simulators, but with manual you need practise most of all and instructor will explain everything and tell you how to feel the moment when you need to change gear etc.. :) Good luck!

I learned to drive a car with a manual gearbox. But I like the automatic transmission more. A lot of modern cars with automatic transmissions use less fuel, accelerates faster and so on. And they are more expensive, unfortunately. :D
If you want to learn how to drive a car with a manual transmission, why do not you take a few lessons from a driving instructor? But it is a bit expensive of course. You can try to play on the steering wheel with pedals and shifter, if available.
I learned to drive with my father all summer almost every day and it was very hard, but I did not know how to drive before. But you already know how to drive, so this should not be difficult for you. Best of luck to you! ;)

View attached image.

Without it difficult to make. You need to train, everything must come to automatism, and you should feel it. You only think about changing gear, and arm and leg have automatically do the right thing.
You can certainly buy somewhere clutch pedal and the gearbox, secure them to any chair and exercise, but it is better to do it on a real car. You can not even ride and stand still with the engine turned off, but not for long.)
For now - you can find gearshift scheme and learn wich gear were is. All of them have same scheme, difference is only in rear gear.
Like this for example http://g01.a.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1_MJ5KpXXXXbNXXXXq6xXFXXXW/Black-Silver-Manual-5-Speed-MT-font-b-Gear-b-font-Shifter-Lever-Shift-font-b.jpg
and this http://images.thecarconnection.com/med/gear-shift_100355606_m.jpg

One more bump for the driving schools. I can't even imagine how some countries allow people to learn on an automatic.

As they said - manual shifting gear is the Best antitheft tool in USA. :D

Never drove a car with an automatic transmission (hell, never been inside a car with automatic transmission until a year or two ago), as they're really not a thing here in Europe. Anyway, I'd also counsel you to go to a driving school and take a couple of hours (or more) with an instructor: I'd imagine it's a bit overwhelming to learn by yourself safely.

tbh never tried an automatic before, can only drive manuals

Learnt in my uncles 4sp station wagon about 25 years ago.
I had to teach my wifes' aunty two years ago when she was given a car with a 5sp Manual - She picked it up in about 3 lessons.
She only stalled a few times, but she had trouble finding the gears until I made a dirty joke on how to hold the gearstick - she blushed turned beet red and then lovingly fondled it for 5 minutes (as per instructions) and then she had no problems finding the right gear :)
My wife was pissed but her aunty now adores me.

If you know a couple guys at your workplace drive manual, why don't you ask one of them for a couple 1hr lessons? One of them likely has a car for you to learn in. Don't think about using a customer's car!

[Of course, you offer them something for their time and gas]

Learning to drive is like, 20% lesson and 80% muscle-memory from practice.

rent one
more precisely, have a friend who can drive stick rent one, take the car to somewhere remote, and then let you drive
Being that you're in Arizona, you probably won't be able to, so you'll have to go on vacation to a country where most cars are stick-shift, and rent one there.

Personally, I prefer automatic, because it's more convenient. On the other hand, one of my friends loves driving a stick mainly because no one can borrow his car.

cars are smart enough these days, to offer equal or better fuel economy on automatic rather than manual, all of those benefits are gone now.

In addition to the suggestions about driving school, if your city has a subreddit, you could consider posting there to ask if anyone around your area owns a manual and would be willing to teach you. I live in a medium-sized city and have seen a few such requests pop up, and people have always offered to help.

Live for Speed is the only sim I am aware of that has a non-joke transmission model.

Caveat, I find it harder to take off in LfS than IRL. Taking off is the trickiest part, for most people driving manual transmissions, it's just press the clutch pedal down fully, move the selector to the desired gear and release the clutch. That's it. Remember to fully press the clutch pedal before coming to a full stop.

More advanced techniques like heel and toe for rev matching can be learned in a sim, but are not necessary if you just need to move a car from point A to point B.

You will need to go to a driving school, and get some lessons on manual driving. Because you will be learning a lot: how to descend, using brakes w/neutral gear during descent, how to go uphill, how to temporarily park while uphill (use handbrakes!!), how fast you can go before a turn, how to shift gears properly, skip gears downshifting, etc.

My instructor had his own set of steering wheels, brakes, and gas pedals that would override mine....this helped in actual road driving.

Again, I advise going to a driving school, and asking for lessons with a manual car. It will cost you, but worth the investment considering its value in your profession.

Well, here in Europe the majority of cars have manual transmissions, so we're naturally used to the clutch.
It's actually pretty easy to learn, but can be quite fickle to master.
You need to familiarize with the pedal, and carefully listen to the engine to know when it's best to shift gears.
As everyone else said, the best (and safest) way to learn would be to resort to a driving school.
Just be warned that, if you miss the timing with the pedals, the engine might switch off! Don't forget to use the safety belt!

i would just ask around at work for a coworker who owns a manual and see if they can take you to a nice empty parking lot somewhere and teach you the basics its not hard to learn it just takes a little finesse to drive one smoothly.

I think your best option is to scrape together some cash and buy a really cheap car. The condition doesn't matter as long as it is road worthy. Look for something that is like 15 or 20 years old for $500. I wouldn't drive it to work in case it isn't reliable, but spend some time with it after work and on the weekends and you will learn in no time. Just make sure before you buy it that it will pass your state inspection so that you don't have to put any extra cash into it.

Do you have any local junkyards that let you walk/drive through and pull parts off yourself? They usually leave the keys in the cars. You can walk around and see if any start. You may need to bring your own battery or jumper cables if you are allowed to drive your car through. Just make sure it's has all it wheels and the brakes work before you drive it. You may also want to look under the hood first and see if it looks like everything is there since people may have pulled parts off already. Maybe pull the dip stick and make sure it has oil. If someone there asks what you are doing, tell them you are looking for a really cheap running car. And if you find one that runs, either just drive it around the junkyard or maybe consider buying it for a few hundred dollars.

Not the most honest thing to do, but you could go to a used car dealer that has really cheap cars and test drive one. If the car is under a few thousand dollars they probably won't go with you.

Excuse my ignorance, but how are you allowed to drive a manual if you never learned to drive one? Where I live (Netherlands) it's illegal to do so. If you pass your driving exam in an automatic, you get a driver's license that only allows you to drive an automatic.

I hear such great things of a manual transmission and all the benefits they can offer via fuel economy, maintenance as well as usually being cheaper in some cases.

That was true a few decades ago. Modern automatics are better then manuals.

You need to learn on a stick car. If none of your friends has one... get more friends!

I wouldn't suggest learning on a friend's car, inexperienced shifting can damage the clutch and potentially your friendship.