Sharing Malaysian culture with the world

Home away from home: Germans and Malaysians posing for a picture at a Merdeka gathering in Munich, Germany. — Pic courtesy of Malaysian Embassy in Germany

PETALING JAYA: One frosty morning in November, scores of Germans and Malaysians gathered to drink teh tarik as fresh snow blanketed Hamburg, in northern Germany.

Over plates of roti canai and nasi lemak, senior officials from the Malaysian Embassy in Berlin put aside the rigid protocols of the diplomatic corps to mingle, joke and gossip with ordinary Malaysians and Germans, as part of the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s intensified public diplomacy initiative.