What is the difference between hearing and listening?

They say you have to be a good listener to be a great conversationalist.We can learn a lot when we pay attention to things we are told.Enough has been said about the life being too short to be able to learn from one's own mistakes only.So, we have to learn from other's mistakes too.But,if we fail to listen,then how could we ever learn? You are so right in saying there is a world of difference in hearing and learning.Hearing is only the reception of the sound by our tympanic membrane that is thereafter signalled to our brain's audotory recepters,but if we aren't attentive the brain will fail to decipher the message,much less retain the information and it's no better than sound.I have heard people getting angry when someone they met couldn't remember their name.They didn't 'listen' to the names in the first place,they just'Heard' them.Hearing and listening are as different as knowledge that we can't use and knowledge that we can.

I agree with you, if there is any action, resulting from what one heard, then he/she must have listened, if none, he heard it okey but did not listen, therefore no action

I think you pretty much have it on the money. Expanding on your idea, when people are in class at school, sometimes, they will hear the teacher talking, yet wont be paying attention, or they will be focused on something else. Or, you could hear someone in the classroom nextdoor talking, but not be listening to them. So yeah, you're right, I think.

I suppose you can never stop hearing things, unless you cover your ears, we have no concious choice over this. But you can choose whether to listen to what you are hearing or not. Like you say, hearing is physiological, hearing is more psychological, as it requires some kind of attention and intent.