Gustar and Encantar
I have always known how to use to gustar and encantar, but what are they literally saying? Why the indirect/direct object? I just don't understand!
Me encanta Ricky Martin. = I love Ricky Martin. But literally, is like "Ricky Martin is charming to me?"
Me gusta la fruta. / La fruta me gusta . Can I say "I like the fruit" both ways? And is this literally "the fruit is pleasing to me?"
3 Answers
Me gusta la fruta
Me - to me
gusta - it pleases
la fruta - the fruit
To me - - - - - it pleases - - - - - the fruit (I like fruit)
¿Te gustan los perros?
Te - to you
gustan - they please
los perros - the dogs
¿To you - - - - - they please - - - - - the dogs?
(Do you like dogs?)
"Gustar" is famously difficult for native English speakers. We like our sentences to have a strict word order. Spanish is more flexible (but sometimes that flexibility confuses my "English brain") 
But look -
¿Te habla Juan?
¿To you - - - - - - he speaks - - - - - Juan? (Is Juan speaking to you?)
......not so different really, is it?
I think what confuses us is - who or what is pleasing to who or what? Personally I've been studying Spanish for 5 years and this concept is still not natural to me, especially when I want to say "dogs don't like me" .......hmmm
If anyone wants to disagree or correct me on something please do.
"Los niños les gustan las frutas" should be " A los niños...."
Yes. You are right. The literal translation is true.
Me encanta Ricky Martin= Ricky Martin is pleasing (however stronger) to me. Me gusta la fruta does mean "it is pleasing to me."
The same goes with "Los niños les gusta Ricky Martin." The object (i.e. Me, te, le, les, nos, o vos) changes with the subject but if you were to say "Los niños les gustan las frutas" you would make the verb plural for "las frutas." Why do they do this? We don't know other than its just the way the language works. Haha
You can say Me gusta la fruta/La fruta me gusta. It says the same both ways however one is probably better for academic writing (ie Me gusta la fruta) and one is better for verbal communication (ie la fruta me gusta).
I hope this helps you. 
My thoughts got somewhat lost during the explanation. I hope I didn't confuse you more! Maybe a more native speaker knows a reason why they do it that way.
