13th entry - How many tongues do you speak?

"Speaking in tongues" according to the Bible is a gift of the Holy Spirit that I have never acquired. I remember that a group of concerned cell-group (or bible study group) members at a church I attended years ago had prayed fervently for me during a regular weekly meeting, to receive the gift of tongues from the Holy Spirit. After about 15 minutes of "praying in tongues", I knew in my heart that I did not receive any ability from God to "speak in tongues", which I attributed to my own lack of religious piety or faith. But seeing that my cell-group members were praying so earnestly and knowing that they firmly believed that I would (and should) receive this gift from God, I decided to act as though I had received the gift by pretending to speak in tongues (it was actually some incomprehensible gibberish stuff that I mumbled). My acting was quite convincing, for they immediately gave thanks to God and assumed that I had been given "the gift"... At that time, I felt really guilty for lying, and also depressed that God withheld this gift from me when everyone else seemed to have it.

Since then, I came to believe that "speaking in tongues" in a biblical sense is not absolutely necessary. Its not an issue of sour grapes, but rather I do not know what speaking in foreign tongues (which sound like gibberish) can be used for - it sure is not used for communication (unless its with God, but then its ridiculous because tongues are not needed for communicating with God anyway!). In the same vein, I also felt that Christians from different denominations who argue endlessly about whether "speaking in tongues" is a myth should really focus on other more critical issues, like their own walk with God - no point being able to speak in tongues (or for that matter being given any gift) and not using it for any edifying purpose. Needless to say, the number of "tongues" one can speak (in) is totally nothing to be boastful about and in fact its implications are rather contentious - does more "tongues" necessarily equate with a higher or greater "gift"-ing?

My colleagues were talking about a young man in Singapore with exceedingly high IQ who knows more than 10 foreign languages, including some that are rarely spoken by foreigners, like Hebrew. What is remarkable is that the guy is only in his late teens or early twenties. I admire people with great language ability, especially those who can not only master their own mother tongue and official languages, but also other foreign languages. They would be able to converse with people from other countries, learn about their diverse political and cultural backgrounds, and discover fascinating things about the world at large. I wished I was able to speak in many "real tongues", but it will be difficult for me. I didnt even manage to learn my mother tongue well when I was at school, and my short basic course in Arabic was a disaster... Sigh! I guess I just dont have affinity with languages...