I (28/F) graduated in 2017 with a Bachelor's in French, 3.79 GPA, Phi Beta Kappa. Since then, I've been working in English-language web editing, doing nothing remotely related to what I did in undergrad. I started an MBA program at my alma mater, failed out in the first semester because I wasn't truly interested. I'd like to get back into academia and study things I'm still passionate about, but I'm not sure there's anything I can say that would make me stand out as a good candidate.

Questions:

1. What can I do to make myself competitive for a French or Linguistics program? Should I take an Intro to Linguistics course somewhere? Take the GRE? What else can I do?
2. Will that failed MBA class be on my transcript that I send to grad programs? Does this mean I'm like...doomed? Can anything overcome that?

Thanks so much for any and all advice!