Speaking in tongues? yes. In accordance with God's word, especially, but there is nothing to support some private language between a man and his God.
It hokey hogwash by over enthused, misled christians.
Actually, there is, but it looks like you've already made up your mind and don't want to be convinced, so that's ok. Praying in tongues is not a salvation issue anyway; it's one of the gifts of the Spirit, and even St. Paul said there were other gifts that he felt we should ask God for first.
The Bible says that when we pray in an unknown tongue (or language) we edify ourselves (build ourselves up). This is not the kind of building ourselves up to puff up our egos, it is a building up of our faith.
Praying in tongues is the enabling of our spirit by the Holy Spirit to do something that is not comprehensible to our natural mind. It requires us to put aside our "logic and wisdom" and let our spiritual side connect with the Spirit of God.
This operation of the gift of tongues is different than being able to speak to someone from a foreign land and have them hear you in their own language. It is different from the speaking in tongues that is accompanied by an interpretation and is meant for the body of believers. All of these are manifestations of the gift of speaking in tongues, and all of them have their proper place and usage, and are backed up by Scripture.
I find for most people, the whole issue of speaking or praying in tongues is a personal preference issue. Kind of like some people like chocolate ice cream, some like strawberry. Me, I like vanilla. It's all still ice cream. If you don't have a preference for the gift of tongues in your walk with the Lord, then you are not likely to seek out that gift. You may operate in other gifts of the Spirit, and God may even have built you up in those gifts more than most. My point would be that I would be careful about calling someone's personal, spiritual experiences with God "hogwash" just because you don't have a spiritual understanding of it, or maybe don't even want to.