Met genoeg oefening gaat Nederlands spreken niet vanzelf, maar wel steeds beter.

Met genoeg oefening means with enough practice or given enough practice.

Here oefening is used as an uncountable noun, meaning practice in general, so the singular is normal. Dutch often does this:

• Met genoeg oefening = with enough practice
• Met veel oefening = with a lot of practice

If you say oefeningen instead, you are talking about individual exercises, not practice in a general sense.

Yes, gaan usually means to go, but in Dutch it is also used in expressions about how something proceeds or works out.

For example:

• Het gaat goed. = It’s going well.
• Het gaat moeilijk. = It’s difficult / It’s going badly.
• Het gaat niet vanzelf. = It does not happen automatically / naturally.

So in this sentence, gaat does not mean physical movement. It means something like goes, proceeds, or works out.

This is because of the Dutch verb-second rule.

In a main clause, the finite verb usually comes in the second position. If you put another element first, the verb still has to stay second.

Basic order:

• Nederlands spreken gaat niet vanzelf.

If you move Met genoeg oefening to the front for emphasis, the verb must come right after it:

• Met genoeg oefening gaat Nederlands spreken niet vanzelf...

So the fronted phrase takes the first slot, and gaat stays in the second slot.

Yes. Nederlands spreken is the subject.

Dutch can use an infinitive phrase as the subject of a sentence, just like English can use speaking Dutch.

So:

• Nederlands spreken gaat niet vanzelf.
• Literally: Speaking Dutch does not go automatically.

A more formal alternative would be:

• Het spreken van Nederlands gaat niet vanzelf.

But Nederlands spreken sounds more natural and direct in everyday Dutch.

Because in Nederlands spreken, Nederlands is the name of the language and is used directly with the verb spreken.

This is very common in Dutch:

• Nederlands spreken
• Engels leren
• Duits verstaan

You do often use an article when the language itself is the noun of the sentence:

• Het Nederlands is moeilijk. = Dutch is difficult.

But in a verb phrase like Nederlands spreken, no article is used.

Vanzelf literally means something like by itself or of itself.

In normal English, it often means:

• automatically
• naturally
• without special effort

So niet vanzelf means that something does not happen automatically or naturally.

In this sentence, it suggests: speaking Dutch does not become easy all by itself.

Maar wel is a very common Dutch contrast pattern.

The sentence has:

• niet vanzelf
• maar wel steeds beter

Here wel directly contrasts with the earlier niet. It adds the sense of but it does, however...

So the meaning is:

• not automatically,
• but it does get better and better.

Without wel, the sentence would still be understandable, but wel makes the contrast stronger and more natural.

Because Dutch often omits repeated words when they are already clear from the first part of the sentence.

The full idea is something like:

• Met genoeg oefening gaat Nederlands spreken niet vanzelf, maar Nederlands spreken gaat wel steeds beter.

Or more naturally expanded:

• ..., maar het gaat wel steeds beter.

Since gaat and the general subject are already understood, Dutch leaves them out. This kind of ellipsis is very common.

So maar wel steeds beter means: but it does get better and better.

Steeds beter means better and better, progressively better, or increasingly better.

The word steeds often combines with a comparative:

• steeds groter = bigger and bigger
• steeds moeilijker = more and more difficult
• steeds beter = better and better

So the sentence does not mean that speaking Dutch suddenly becomes easy. It means that with enough practice, it improves little by little.

Yes, beter en beter is understandable, but steeds beter is usually more natural in neutral Dutch.

Compare:

• steeds beter = very common, natural, standard
• beter en beter = possible, but often a bit more expressive or emphatic

So in this sentence, steeds beter is the most idiomatic choice.