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Description: The expression of event series varies across languages in intriguing ways. One key difference is that in some linguistic systems, like Chinese, events can be tightly sequenced using serial verb constructions (SVC), e.g., “qu kaimen” (go open door). Linguistic systems with this property are known as serializing, and those without it, like English, as non-serializing. This paper explores whether second language (L2) learners with a serializing first language (L1) conceptually transfer tight L1-based event serialization patterns into their non-serializing L2, and, bidirectionally, if L2 learners with a non-serializing L1 acquire tight SVC-modulated event serialization in L2. To investigate this, a task was created to estimate temporal distances between events on a time axis. Results showed that Chinese learners of English estimated significantly shorter temporal distances between multiple events in English SVC-like sentences compared to English natives. Tighter temporal sequencing in L2 English is interpreted as L1-based conceptual transfer of event serialization patterns. In the opposite direction, English learners of Chinese marked events in Chinese SVCs as significantly further apart than did Chinese natives, also showing that their event serialization is L1-based. This study demonstrates for the first time crosslinguistic influence on the conceptual level in the domain of event serialization.