first of all: "I want to play to get better but I keep thinking im going to fight a foreigner and lose"
that's stupid.
1. you're very likely to find a foreinger. the problem? who cares XD? that doesn't even matter.
2. you're gonna loose? well, yeah. everybody looses. and not just when starting, all the time. thats the point of the game. one wins, the other one looses.
and you should not care about what a random person you found on FG (for glory) could posibly think about you. you (or he/she) will leave the room sooner or later and you wont ever again remember or see each other. and if you feel they are behaving unpropietly (hope i spelt that right), you just leave.
well, now that that's out of the way:
i was going to suggest you to try out mario, as he is not a very balances and relatively simple character but he is about top 10 in the game. but i guess not, huh?
idk, you could try with pit/dark pit, C. falcon or lucina. they are, as well, kind of simpler characters, easy to learn to get into the game.
because, bayo... not exactly the best choice for a begginer. she is one of the hardest characters to use. corrin, meh. i guess is not that bad to start. though he/she has some stranger mechanics than the rest o the cast.
to get better? idk, just play. you may as well start with a computer, and then move on to FG, or get online straight away.
you'll need to know the basics of the game (that's including smash vocabulary (if you're new, you should really look for a guide (or video) on this(this one i.e.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRbvCVVSVEk it's not the best one, but it'll do))).
assuming that's done, you'll need to now learn the basics of your character. again, start with a simple one.
see which things are good (good killmoves, aproach options, out-of-shield options or just safe attacks that won't get you punished for missing), and which aren't.
combos, maybe strategies, tips you can find here (in smashboards) or all over youtube (maybe check out JTails and/or AceStarThe3rd for general references). watch for some higher level gameplay aswell, be it good player on FG (like the YTers mentioned above), or actual tournament sets. VGBootCamp, Tourney Locator and CLASH Tournaments are three YT channels that upload the latter (and not only SSB4 but PM and Mele aswell, if you were interested in those).
i'd say "go into training mode and practice", but unless you want to get REALLY into the competitive, that's not necesary. you are better learning the fundamentals for now. you can learn by doing. and let's accept it, training mode is boring...
(this last paragraph is a little more in depth than the lievel i think you're in right now, but read it anyway, because it's about one of the fundamentals of a, at least, decent smash player)
and then, once you got yout character down, you have to learn that smash is way beyond the character you use. thats one of the reasons why the tier list isn't THAT important. it's a lot more about the players. you have to try to make as less mistakes as possible. but that doesn't JUST mean "avoid doing unsafe/stupid things", things like being predictable (by doing the same thing over and over) can get you into trouble if the oponent finds out yout pattern. that's why it's important to not be doing always the same thing, keep it fresh, be unexpected.
and the same goes for you. if you can figure out your oponent's flaws, patterns and things lie that, you can punish them
(of course, this last thing doesn't apply to CPUs, as they dont try to read your movement nor have set patterns (except for some ones like peach or ness... god, how i hate thos CPUs). they just react with god-like precission. I play on 8, 'cause 9 is unbearable and boring (8, a little bit less))
