Why do they write from R to L in Arabic countries?

[Jimmy Snyder]

Is Japanese is getting more phonetic as more foreign and technical terms are translated phonetically in katakana?

Imported foreign words almost always are written phonetically and as time goes on, they take up a larger percentage of the entire opus of Japanese text. In that sense, you could say that the written language is getting more phonetic. However, this does not mean that the core vocabulary is being replaced with phonetic equivalents. You will need to learn Chinese characters to read Japanese for the foreseeable future.

 

[arunma]

I'm fairly certain that the reason people in Arabic countries write from right to left has more to do with the Arabic language than anything else. If I'm not mistaken, it's a characteristic of semitic languages. Hebrew, both ancient and modern, is also written from right to left. If you write some Hebrew characters in Microsoft Word and try to highlight them, it'll even do this funny thing where it tries to highlight from right to left. Arabic is a derivative of Hebrew, so it stands to reason that it would be the same way.

 

[CaptainQuasar]

Arabic and Hebrew are both Semitic languages but I don't think that Arabic is a derivative of Hebrew, is it?

⚛​

 

[mgb_phys]

Arabic and Hebrew are both Semitic languages but I don't think that Arabic is a derivative of Hebrew, is it?

No - although as you said they both come from the same roots and have some words/grammer in common.

 

[leopard]

Even better if they switched to English.

 

[mgb_phys]

Even better if they switched to English.

Yes it's odd that they haven't really.
I can't imagine what God, who is of course originally English - although apparently moved to America on the Mayflower, thought he was doing making the Muslims and Jews both write the word of God in silly made up squiggly letters.

Personally I blame the French.