Learn Hardcore Russian: Живой разговор с другом радует меня. - A lively conversation with a friend makes me happy.

In English we’d usually say I enjoy a lively conversation with a friend. Why is the Russian sentence structured with разговор as the subject and меня as the object?

Russian uses a different “point of view” here. The verb радовать literally means to please / to gladden (someone).

So the Russian sentence is literally:

Живой разговор с другом – a lively conversation with a friend (subject, nominative)
радует – pleases / makes happy (3rd person singular)
меня – me (direct object, accusative)

So the structure is: Something pleases me, rather than I enjoy something.

English could mirror this and also say A lively conversation with a friend pleases me, which matches the Russian structure exactly. It’s just that in everyday English we more often say I enjoy / I like…, while Russian comfortably uses X радует меня (X pleases me).

Why is it меня and not мне in this sentence?