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Hey!
First, props to you for deciding to brush up your French language skills sooner rather than later. Learning a language is all about the long-term, so the sooner you get to it the better.

There are already some good resources posted in this thread, but in my opinion, Duolingo would probably be a better fit for your skill level than Rosetta Stone. Rosetta Stone tries to emulate the way children learn their first language, so you never really learn grammar/syntax/other rules explicitly, and it's all about repetition. I've yet to meet a single person who didn't get bored with it in a matter of weeks. It's decent if you're just starting to learn a very foreign language with different alphabets and sounds like Mandarin or Arabic, but that's pretty much it. You might want to check out Becoming Fluent by Roberts and Kreuz for information on adult language learning from the perspective of cognitive sciences. I thought it was very interesting and useful (not too long either)!

Once you've refreshed your high school French grammar memory, I would just go straight to consuming French-language media. Watching movies/TV shows with dubbing/subtitles is always a good option. I would prioritize Quebec productions if the goal is to become familiar with a spoken French that is closer to what you would hear in every day life. Nearly the entire catalogue of Radio-Canada's French-language TV shows is available for free on tou.tv. You can also find just about every podcast in Quebec on baladoquebec.ca. You could even rewatch classic cartoons like King of the Hill and The Simpsons in French: the dubbing for these two shows in particular has been done in Canada with adaptations for a French Canadian public and it's actually well done. These two are some of the few TV shows that are arguably made better by the translation. If you have to commute to school/work, I would recommend filling your playlist up with French podcasts and audiobooks. I've found some French audiobooks for free on audiobookbay before, but I'm sure it's also possible to buy/rent audiobooks legally too^(if you're a square) ;)

As for real-life practice, Fredericton isn't the best city. But there is a small Francophone community whose activities seem to be centered around the Centre Communautaire Sainte-Anne. Some events are posted on the Centre's website, and it looks like you can sign up for newsletters, classes, etc. It also houses a French-language library which might come in handy if you can't find a lot of French resources in the city library.

As for not wanting to seem "like a bumbling idiot", I say don't worry about it. Francophones in NB rarely if ever expect Anglophones to address them in their language, but they are always glad to see someone trying (probably even more so in our current political climate). Just a word of warning though: don't be offended if you ask a Francophone a question or whatever and they switch to English. It's not because they can't understand your French/accent, but rather as a courtesy and a habit. In a situation like this, don't be afraid to just let them know that you're trying to practice your French, and they'll happily oblige.

I think I'd better apologize to the moderator for the tone of my post - as a lifelong Albertan transplanted here, I'ver found people here to be good-hearted and resilient, and genuine as friends. Of which I've been happy to make many; I can respect now what they have to deal with living here every day, and that's essentially the opposite of every stereotype you hear back home.

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My venom is directed mainly at government here - if you can call it that, even on a good day - and the very few big corporate employers, particularly here where I live in Saint John.

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They're backwards, stupid AND corrupt. The government is on par with some creepy central Asian Islamic republic for honesty. I just got turned down for a job as a supply teacher by ASD-S (Anglophone School Distrct - South) because they said they 'were worried I couldn't handle rowdy students'. Nevermind that I'm better educated than 90% of the people they have, and the fact they're crying for ppl with math and sciences training (I have a STEM degree, from an actual top-tier university).

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Oh, and there's the small matter of an ASD-S Transport Manager having used government expense money to bring along someone I know here in town to Kitchener-Waterloo for a week long sex holiday. Then promptly returning and securing that persona job and immediate promotion with ASD-S, no open competition. The HR person okayed it, and her boss signed off on it. The girl in question came to me in tears after Mr T strung her along and (surprise) didn't leave his wife for her, that's how I found out. He and Ms Ryan know I know all about their crime - Likely what lost me the teaching job.

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How's THAT for 'backwards'..?

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After being laid off from my last career-level job - as an oil company Exploration Manager in Calgary -my wife, who's from here, convinced me that we should move here so she could be closer to her aging mother. The only work I could get was at a series of call centres (the growth field in this sh!thole Saint John). I NEVER thought things I've seen here would exist in Canada.

So, I wrote a book and put it on Kobo. The CRTC asked me to give testimony at their recent inquiry into the crooked practices of call centres like Nordia. Not sure if any of it'll help....

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Anyhow, here's the link to the ebook - Call Centre: Life on the Line, if anyone wants to give it a look. I'm thinking that maybe someday when they're in college far from here, they'll read it and have a window into that part of their dad's life, and the part of life here we worked hard to ensure they never saw. There's a lot more than just 'Sex scandal at public school board' that I have to tell, anyone who wants to hear it can feel free to pvt message me.

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https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/call-centre-2

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https://www.amazon.com/Call-Centre-Life-J-R-Wellman-ebook/dp/B07FSQLNRD/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1542808271&sr=8-2&keywords=call+centre+life

Joesph,

I called and after a discussion it seems like not many customers exist in eastern NB. I decided to give Teksavvy a shot and placed my order. Paying $47 beats $85 for the same service. I also went with the tp link adsl2+ modem

pffft... flamethrower my ass; https://www.amazon.com/Hot-Max-500G-Propane-Torch/dp/B00282LP34

a ten dollar supersoaker and five bucks worth of gas is closer to a flamethrower than the 500 dollar trinket musk is selling here...

Unless they're going to make propane torches illegal that "flamethrower" is going to sell like hotcakes to every idiot with 500 dollars to burn...