Brussels airport is in Flanders. They answer in English on purpose even to Francophone Belgians, though most Flemish speak French. Just to be annoying.

Have you considered that the barista also wanted to practice their English and it isn’t about you? Stay in french and they can stay in English

Do you think that if I come to the United States as a French speaker and start talking to the pharmacist in French, he/her will answer me in French ?

I see your point and it’s not a secret at this point, but next time try that in a french airport, pretty sure they’d answer in English as well.

Its not about ego, a lot of us french people are bad at english and very insecure about our spoken english so they might have understood but were too anxious to reply in english.

Tbh French people and Belgian people are very different...but it would be a lie to say you wouldn't have the exact same interaction with 2 persons from, let's say, Paris. We're not one united people, we have different reactions, different backgrounds. So when you're a tourist you can have a cool interaction with someone who's genuinely trying to help you, or talk to an *sshole who's making fun of you. The only common denominator here is that we don't need to "act" in front of customers 😂

I went to China and spoke my language to a pharmacist and they didn't understand anything. It's almost like people have no obligation to learn your language just because you're in their country.

I didn't understand where the ego problem was? Was it about speaking french in their own country? or about switching to english when you tried to speak french?