They listen with the ears, or with the brain, but they don't know how to listen with the heart. They listen on the surface. The elder's purpose is to teach and pass on tradition, and to teach ways of living your life from their own experience. To really listen from the heart requires we get past our innate conditioning. Many times we are being force-fed information we don't want to hear, so we learn how to tune it out by just listening on the surface.
People become much too busy to listen and take real communication to heart.
Both Clyde and Emma have observed how most non-natives don't know how to listen. Oftentimes, people are just going through the motions of listening, which would infuriate Clyde and Emma alike because they were aware they weren't getting through. Elders have been objectified when they were put on a pedestal, or fawned over. Listening from the heart is setting aside these mindsets, really listening to what the elders have to say and teach. There may be a tremendous gift there for a person in their life that might totally change them.