I pray in tongues to God daily, so please don't jump in here if you have not had the experience and condemn tongue talkers our of hand.I received the gift of tongues as a prayer language between me and God in 1976.
We need to consider that there is more than one type of tongues from God and that there are tongues NOT from God.
"To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues" I Cor 12:10
I have counted not less than three types of tongues described in scripture. If you are not familiar with them, familiarize yourself before blindly plunging into unknown waters with both feet.
No gift of God is not useless.
My own gift of the tongues allows me to pray the prayers that need to be prayed but which we might not want to pray. Consider the time Peter rebuked Jesus:
"And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him." Mark 8:31-32
Jesus had told the disciples that the Son of man was going to sufffer and be killed and Peter rebuked Him because he thought it was wrong. Jesus turned and rebuked Peter:
"But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men." Mark 8:33
Jesus did not want to suffer and die, but He knew that it was God's will that He do so. Consider when Jesus prayed about it:
"And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." Matt 26:39
The "cup" was the suffering and death that Jesus needed to face according to the Father''s will.
Sometimes it may be God will for you or me to face suffering and even the death of someone we love. Can we pray the right way... or will we simply pray for what we want as for instance that the life of our parent or spouse or child not be taken from us. However...
"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;" Ecc 3:1-2
If we do ask God to spare our loved one, do we always add words like, "nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt"? For very difficult prayers the gift of praying in tongues will make it possible or even easy to pray the right prayer rather than what our flesh thinks it needs. God always knows what we need, while we too often confuse our needs with our wants.
As one here has already mentioned, there is a kind of tongues that needs an interpreter, but that is not the only kind of tongues from God.
People should not be so quick to look at the negative aspect of tongues. It is a gift of God. If someone misuses or abuses it or imitates it, and we really know that that is the case, then we should try to advise them, but we should be certain of difference between what the Holy Spirit is telling us and what some other spirit may be telling us.
There are spirits that are not good, but withhold your judgment when you do not know where it is from...