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As for 聞きます／聞く, the difference between “to listen” and “to ask” lies in the particle, as far as I know.

When asking someone (for advice, help, etc.), it pairs with the に particle, e.g. 先生に聞きます.

When listening to something/someone, it pairs with the を particle, e.g. 音楽を聞きます.

I swear, you all wrote essay long posts making this lesson more confusing that it should be. 

Guess I totally don't understand at this point... I guess that's pretty common.. I slowly start to understand as time goes on.. Hopefully it again will prove useful! HAI!?

FYI "ga" emphasizes the topic of the sentence while "wa" "emphasizes" what is after the topic. It is often used when the topic is what, who or where.

は does indeed mark new information, and は is also inherently contrastive. が can be used as a subject particle, when (as you point out) it is marking focus, but not necessarily always new information (because if it is contrasting or comparing, then は might be a better fit). When you have complex sentences with subordinate clauses the subject of the subordinate clause will take が, whereas the main topic will still be は. The difference between subject が and topic は is one of the TRICKIEST out there. To get technical, verbs like わかります and ちがいます are intransitive verbs. Intransitive verbs, as you pointed out, are often understood in English by using the passive voice (being understood) - but they are not passive. Japanese has far more intransitive verbs than English and generally avoids the passive voice except in specific situations (adversive/honorific). Japanese also has many transitive/intransitive verb pairs: 終える (finish) and 終わる (end), for example. The difference between the transitive "finish" and the intransitive "end" is that "finish" requires agency (someone did it!) and "end" can just happen naturally. (The teacher finished class/ The class ended). Whether to use the transitive or intransitive is a long topic, but the intransitive is used more often when the focus is on what happened and not who. Intransitive verbs take the particle が, transitive take を. In this sense they are both marking the object of the verb - 日本ごがわかります does not mean "Japanese understands." Even if we think of わかります as having a passive meaning "to be understood" (due to its intransitive nature), the "what" that is being understood is still "Japanese." Because が is marking the "what" (and not the "who") I think it is more suitable at this point to just think of it as an object marker (and not subject, which implies an agency it does not have).

Okay, so this is my understanding of particles は／を／が. I don't know Japanese, just learning from textbooks a little further than Nihongo Master offers now. So please correct me if I am wrong (and I am probably wrong in several places). は marks topic, or old/known information. Sometimes it could be a subject performing action, but not always. が marks focus, or new information. It usually is a subject performing action. It is not a direct object marker. わかります means not "to understand" but "to be understood", so 日本ご　が　わかります means literally "Japanese language is being understood (by me)". Same with verbs ちがいます (to differ), あります (to be), います (to be) etc. を marks object the action is performed at. さかな　は　たべます Fish　(topic)　eat. Literally: "(Speaking of) fish, eat". If this is an answer to question "What does fish do?" that would mean "(Speaking of) fish, (it) eats". However (but I'm not quite sure), if this would be an answer to question "What do you do with fish?" that would mean "(Speaking of) fish, I eat it". さかな　が　たべます Fish　(focus)　eat Literally: "(It is) fish (who) eats", or "Fish eats". That could be an answer to question "Who eats?". さかな　を　たべます Fish　(object)　eat "(to) eat fish" or "(Somebody) eats fish". Topic is omitted. わたし　は　さかな　を　たべます I　(topic)　fish　(object)　eat "(Speaking of me) I eat fish" (What do you(topic) do?) わたし　が　さかな　を　たべます I　(focus)　fish　(object)　eat "(It is) I (who) eat fish" (Who will eat fish?)