Learn Spanish (Latin America): Me gustan las peras y las manzanas.

In Spanish, gustar actually means "to be pleasing to." In this sentence, the things that are pleasing are the pears and apples. Because the subject (the fruit) is plural, the verb needs to be plural too. We add an "n" to make it gustan.

Why does it say las peras and las manzanas? In English we just say "I like pears and apples."

When you talk about things in a general sense in Spanish—like stating that you like a whole category of food—you must include the definite article (el, la, los, or las). English drops the word "the" here, but Spanish requires it.

Why use Me at the beginning instead of Yo?

Because the literal translation of this sentence is "The pears and the apples are pleasing to me." Yo means "I", but Me means "to me." Since the fruit is doing the action of being pleasing, you are the receiver, so you use Me.

Could I just say las peras y manzanas and only use las once?

It is much more natural and grammatically correct in Spanish to repeat the article for each new noun in a list. So, it is best to say las peras y las manzanas instead of dropping the second las.